The elm borer is a longhorned beetle whose larvae bore galleries under the bark of elm trees. It is one of the insects that can transmit the fungus that causes Dutch elm disease.
Elm Borer
Saperda tridentata
Family:
Cerambycidae (longhorned beetles) in the order Coleoptera (beetles)
Description:
The elm borer is a longhorned beetle whose larvae bore galleries under the bark of elm trees. It is one of the insects that can transmit the fungus that causes Dutch elm disease, but it is not the fungus's main vector. The elm borer is in a large subfamily called the "flat-faced longhorns."
Adults are seen from May to August. The orangish markings on the adults are distinctive, as is the fine coating of grayish hairs on most of the body.
Learn more about this and other longhorned beetles on their family page.
Similar Species
Longhorned Beetles (Borers; Sawyer Beetles)
About 1,000 species in North America north of Mexico
Four-Humped Flat-Faced Longhorn
Acanthoderes quadrigibba
Ivory-Marked Beetle
Eburia quadrigeminata
Milkweed Longhorns
Tetraopes spp.
Asian Longhorned Beetle
Anoplophora glabripennis
Red-Headed Ash Borer
Neoclytus acuminatus
Banded Longhorn
Typocerus velutinus
American Burying Beetle
Nicrophorus americanus
May Beetles (June Bugs)
Phyllophaga spp.
Blister Beetles
More than 400 species in North America north of Mexico
About Land Invertebrates in Missouri
Invertebrates are animals without backbones, including earthworms, slugs, snails, and arthropods. Arthropods—invertebrates with “jointed legs” — are a group of invertebrates that includes crayfish, shrimp, millipedes, centipedes, mites, spiders, and insects. There may be as many as 10 million species of insects alive on earth today, and they probably constitute more than 90 percent all animal species.