Family Cerambycidae - Longhorned Beetles

The Cerambycidae, commonly known as longhorned beetles, longicorns, capricorns, round-headed borers, timber beetles, goat beetles (bock-käfern), or sawyer beetles. (Monné & Hovore 2005)

Includes Disteniidae

Author of family is Latreille, 1802. From the name for (now) one genus within the family, Cerambyx. This is from Greek, kerambex, referring to a particular type of horned beetle. This may be derived from a combination of karabos, beetle, and kerax, horn (1). (Compare keratin, the protein comprising mammalian horns.)

About 1,000 species occur in the US and Canada (Johnson & Triplehorn 2004)

Family CERAMBYCIDAE

Subfamily PARANDRINAE

Subfamily PRIONINAE

Subfamily SPONDYLIDINAE (No tribal assignments). Neospondylis, Scaphinus

Subfamily ASEMINAE

Subfamily CERAMBYCINAE

Subfamily LEPTURINAE

Subfamily LAMIINAE

Subfamily DISTENIINAE

Across the U.S. and Canada, they vary from 3 to 60 mm (Johnson & Triplehorn 2004)

Distributed world-wide from sea level to montane sites as high as 4,200 m elevation wherever their host plants are found. (Monné & Hovore 2005)

Larval Cerambycidae also display a variety of habits. Most species feed within dead, dying or even decaying wood, but some taxa are able to use living plant tissue. Girdlers (adults of the Onciderini, larvae of genera in the tribes Methiini, Hesperophanini and Elaphidiini) sever living branches or twigs, with the larvae developing within the nutrient-rich distal portion. The larvae of a few species move freely through the soil, feeding externally upon roots or tunneling up under the root crown. (Monné & Hovore 2005)

Most adult cerambycids, particularly the brightly colored ones, feed on flowers. (Johnson & Triplehorn 2004) Overall, adult feeding requirements are variable, with some species taking nourishment from sap, leaves, blossoms, fruit, bark, and fungi, often not associated with a larval host, while others take little or no nourishment beyond water. (Monné & Hovore 2005)

The life spans of most species in temperate regions typically range from one to three years, but many variations exist, and cycles of from two or three months to several decades have been documented. Most of the overall lifetime is spent in the larval stage, with adult beetles usually emerging, dispersing, reproducing, and dying within a span of a few days to a few months. (Monné & Hovore 2005)

Digestion of cellulose appears to be aided primarily by the presence of enzymes rather than symbiotic microorganisms. In many cases, Cerambycidae are primary borers in woody plants, providing a vital "first step" in the biological recycling of these materials. (Monné & Hovore 2005)

The Century Dictionary--entry for Cerambyx (1)

American Beetles, Vol. 2, Chapter 120 (2)

Field Guide to Northeastern Longhorned Beetles (3)

Cerambycidae of North Dakota (4)

Borror and DeLong's Introduction to the Study of Insects (5)

Survey Cerambycidae of Colorado (6)

1. Miguel A. Monné, Larry G. Bezark & Frank T. Hovore. 2007. Checklist of the Cerambycidae, or longhorned beetles (Coleoptera) of the Western Hemisphere. 417 pp.

2. Monné, M.A. & F.T. Hovore. 2005. Electronic Checklist of the Cerambycidae of the Western Hemisphere. 393 pp.

3. Illustrated Checklist of Florida Cerambycids

4. Photographic Catalog of the Cerambycidae of the New World

5. Cerambycids Illustrated

6. Mississippi Checklist

7. West Virginia Longhorned Beetles