Japanese Cedar Longhorned Beetle

Scientific Name: Callidiellum Rufipenne
Common Name: Japanese Cedar Longhorned Beetle, Cedar Longhorned Beetle, Smaller Japanese Cedar Longhorned Beetle, Lesser Cedar Longicorn Beetle

Known Hosts:
In Asia the Japanese Cedar Longhorned Beetle is considered a secondary pest attacking stressed and freshly cut conifers. Known Asian hosts include Japanese cedar, Hinoki cypress, Sawara cypress, false arborvitae, firs and pine.

In Connecticut, this beetle has been observed in healthy American arborvitae plants. In its introduced range in the United States and Europe, hosts include eastern redcedar, American arborvitae, juniper, and Monterey cypress.

Key ID Features (Adults, Larvae, Eggs):

• Adults emerge from the host in early spring. They are 1/4 to 1/2 inch (6-14mm) in length with a slightly flattened body. Adult beetles are often found at the base of crotch where two branches meet.
• Male have antennae that are slightly longer than their body. They are an irridescent blue-black color with reddish areas on the upper corners of the wing covers (elytra).
• Female have shorter antennae, reddish-brown elytra, and an orange-red abdomen.
• Females lay small (1.4 mm), yellowish eggs in bark crevices in spring.
• Larvae feed within the stems forming shallow, serpentine galleries just beneath the bark.
• The beetle pupates in the fall and overwinters as an adult inside the host.

Description of damage:

• Small oval exit holes (less than 0.25 inch) are created by adults exiting the wood in the spring.
• Puckering incisions along the bark result from larval mining. Frass can be seen in openings to the tunnels.

Fact sheets and references:
Cooperative Pest Agricultural Survey:Links to resources, maps, and articles on Japanese Cedar Longhorned Beetle
http://ceris.purdue.edu/napis/pests/celb/

Japanese Cedar Longhorned Beetle in the Eastern United States
USDA APHIS Pest Alert
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/jclbpale.pdf

The content above was solely provided from the Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach Project which is a collaboration between the Massachusetts Dept. of Agricultural Resources and the UMass Extension Agriculture and Landscape Program. This information was made possible, in part, by a Cooperative Agreement from the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). It may not necessarily express APHIS' or Mayer Tree Service's views.