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I recently saw this beetle while on a trip in central Texas, USA (in a rural area just before sundown). The body was about 2-3 inches long (compare to nearby chair leg and floorboards) and had a long body. It was very vivid green, and its upper legs were very bright orange (which made me wonder if this is aposematism). Its antennae had very uniform half-circle arcs (instead of the uneven parabolic shape often seen in cockroaches and similar common insects) and didn't seem to bend besides being rotated ~5 degrees up and down.

It carried itself pretty high off the ground, perhaps half an inch between the belly and ground-level. It seemed to move fairly fast, but not as fast as a cockroach. It didn't fly in the few minutes I observed, and didn't seem like it could fly since the shell appeared solid, but I might have mistaken well-fitting sheaths for fused ones.

enter image description here

What is the most likely species? Is it poisonous?

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  • $\begingroup$ I can't see the antenna well, but they look long. Could it be some sort of longhorned beetle? $\endgroup$
    – user137
    Jul 1, 2015 at 23:04
  • $\begingroup$ @user137 For anyone wondering, the antenna were quite long - all of the blurry blackish line is antenna. Based on my recollections, if I pulled on them and straightened, they would be between 1.25 and 1.5 times the length of the beetle's body - consistent with your answer as well! $\endgroup$
    – Superbest
    Jul 2, 2015 at 21:23
  • $\begingroup$ With this image, I've had one bite me, after maybe 6 hours a blister began to form. I believe it's a blister beetle. $\endgroup$
    – Kayla M Derr
    Sep 26, 2021 at 15:04

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I'm going to guess it's an Plinthocoelium suaveolens, based on the image found here, which I show below:

enter image description here

I found this link through a Texas beetle page here and is the best I can do from the image provided.

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