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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.

 

 

 

Both elytra with two black dots. Caterpillars in dead spruce or broadleaf wood.

 

 

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

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Gleaming green. With strong specific smell. Larvae in old willows.

 

 

 

Elytra banded in black and yellow. Larvae in broadleaf trees.

 

 

 

 

Elytra of female red, tip and seam black. Larvae on coniferous as well as broadleaf trees.

 

 

 

 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.

 

 

 

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