These longhorn beetles are forest menaces

Text and photos Ave Liivamägi
Translation: Liis
Longhorn beetles      Siklased      Cerambycidae
Longhorn beetles are beetles with a narrow body and long antennae. Many longhorn beetles have colourful outer or cover  wings (elytra), others have a tree bark coloured pattern. The imagos or fully developed insects we meet in summer on the flowers and leaves of plants and on tree trunks. The larvae of longhorn beetles develop in wood. Because wood is poor in nutrients the development may last several years.  As a result some longhorn beetles are forest pests. Longhorn beetle species prefer one or some specific kinds of trees.
 
 
-    Tuisusikk    Pachyta quadrimaculata 
 
Both elytra with two black dots. Caterpillars in dead spruce or broadleaf wood.
 
 
Black-spotted pliers support beetle   Lehtpuu-kooresikk       Rhagium mordax  
Elytra yellowish grey, with two brownish yellow cross bandsthat are separated on the sides by a large black patch. Larvae under the bark of dead broadleaf tree trunks and stumps
.
 
 
Musk beetle   Muskussikk     Aromia moschata 
 
Gleaming green. With strong specific smell. Larvae in old willows.
 
 
Four-banded longhorn beetle   Harilik kiitsaksikk   Leptura quadrifasciata 
 
Elytra banded in black and yellow. Larvae in broadleaf trees.
 
 
 
--      Väike-kiitsaksikk     Leptura melanura 
 
Elytra of female red, tip and seam black. Larvae on coniferous as well as broadleaf trees.
 
 
--     Suur-õiesikk     Anoplodera rubra 
 
 Elytra of male ochre yellow. Larvae on coniferous trees.
The Brachyta interrogationis and the aspen zebra beetle are no longer to be seen in nature this year.
 
 
--   Viiulsikk     Brachyta interrogationis
 
On the outer edge of both elytra three black dots and on the back  a  curved black lengthwise band. Larvae in old pine or birch wood.
 
 
Aspen zebra beetle      Haava-kirisikk      Xylotrechus rusticus

On the grey elytra 2-3 ciurved lighter cross bands. Larvae on aspen.
 
 
Translator's note: Accepted common names in English are lacking or not easy to find for several of the longhorn beetle species above 


 

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