Monday, September 24, 2012

White-spotted Sawyer (Monochamus scutellatus)

While I was in Yellowstone, I didn't photograph only large animals and the beautiful landscapes, there were a few interesting insects that needed photography..
The first was a Long-horned Beetle.   _D8C4427-Edit-3 September 13, 2012 NIKON D800Nowadays, the worry in the East is about the Asian Long-horned Beetle, and in fact, the beetle that I found has been misidentified as the Asian Long-horned Beetle.  It Is the White-spotted Sawyer (Monochamus scutellatus).  While the Asian Long-horned beetle attacks hardwoods, the whites-spotted Sawyer utilizes weekend or recently dead conifers, freshly cut pulpwood, and saw logs.  Its range is from new fluent southward to North Carolina, then westward from the Atlantic coast to the North Central states to Minnesota are an northwestward up into Alaska.
One of the identifying marks for this beetle are the small white spots at the base of the wing covers.  The males are almost always completely shiny black and the females color can be mottled due to several white spots scattered over the wing covers.  The males and tenor are twice the body length, while those of the female are slightly longer than the body.
The lifecycle can take up to two years to complete, depending on the location of the country that the insect is in.  Egg laying starts in early June and into July and continues until early in September.  The larvae hatch after 9 to 14 days and then the larvae tunnels through the inner bark to the cambium within three days.  As the larvae increase in size, its galleries become wider and deeper.  The larvae will overwinter in one of these tunnels.
The Sawyer that I photographed, was easy to find, since it landed on the shirt all one of my fellow participants.

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