Chrysobothris femorata
Coleoptera: Buprestidae
Identification
• Larva is yellow-white, legless, up to 11/4" long, and lives in a
U-shaped position within a trunk or branch.
• Adult is a 1" long, bullet-shaped, black beetle with indistinct markings.
(a)
Damage
• The larva tunnels just under the bark and also deeper into the center
of the trunk or branch. Tunnels are filled with frass, a mixture of sawdust
and fecal material. (b)
• In newly planted maples, the larva will tunnel under the bark and
up the tree in a spiral pattern. (c)
• Adult emerges through a 1/8" D-shaped hole.
• Attacks older or stressed serviceberry, crabapple, hawthorn, mountain-ash,
plum, and many other trees.
Management
• Keep trees healthy by planting in the proper site and providing proper
growing conditions.
• Insecticide application when mock orange or beautybush blooms is
effective for young trees.
• Realize that serviceberry, mountain-ash, purple leaf plum, and other
rose family trees are short-lived and are likely to get these borers when
only a few years old.