Ivory-marked Borer

Here's someone I met outside my door, an Ivory-marked Borer. From a nature perspective, these beetles are pretty benign. The adults munch on some leaves and twigs, and while the larvae bore into trees to eat wood, apparently they only do this to dead trees; no living trees are harmed by this beetle.

Unfortunately for us, we build things using dead wood. It's possible the larvae of this beetle are in the process of eating your wooden structures or furniture as we speak. You might get some use out of the wood though; they eat pretty slowly. It can take between 10-40 years of eating wood before they'll emerge as adults. That's a pretty long life by insect standards.

There is a very similar beetle that seems restricted to Texas, Oklahoma, and adjoining states. It's called the Ivory-marked Longhorn, looks similar, bores into trees, and can interbreed with the Ivory-marked Borer. It's been suggested that they should be considered the same species, though for the moment they're considered to be different.

August 9, 2022 at Finderne
Photo 228538909, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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