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Genus Monochamus - Sawyers

Flat-Faced Longhorn Beetle - Monochamus obtusus Beetles Takhlakh Lake Washington - Monochamus scutellatus - female Large sawyer? - Monochamus notatus Longhorned Beetle? - Monochamus Unknown Longhorn Beetle - Monochamus - male Longhorn - Monochamus titillator Beetle2 - Monochamus scutellatus Pine Sawyer - Monochamus clamator
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)
Superfamily Chrysomeloidea (Longhorn and Leaf Beetles)
Family Cerambycidae (Longhorn Beetles)
Subfamily Lamiinae (Flat-faced Longhorn Beetles)
Tribe Monochamini
Genus Monochamus (Sawyers)
Explanation of Names
Monochamus Dejean 1821
Numbers
8 spp. and 6 sspp. in the New World, all in our area(1), ~160 spp. total(2)
Size
body ≥25 mm
Identification
Either black or mottled gray. First antennal segment has a scar-like area near the tip. Antennae of the male is twice as long as the body, about as long as the body in females.
Range
most diverse in Africa (over half of the spp. and all the 15 subgenera); outside Africa, only the nominate subgenus is represented: 65 spp. in Eurasia & 14 in NA(2)
Food
on conifers • freshly cut, felled, dying, or recently dead trees preferred(3)
Life Cycle
Young larvae feed on the inner bark, cambium and outer sapwood, forming shallow galleries, then bore deep into the heartwood, then turn around and bore back toward the surface, forming a characteristic U-shaped tunnel with a pupal cell at the outer end.(3)
Remarks
Some species are carriers of the pinewood nematode, responsible for pine wilt
M. alternatus (Japanese Pine Sawyer) of east Asian origin has been intercepted in wood crating in w.NY
The larvae are known as sawyers because of the loud noise they make while feeding(3)
Works Cited
1.New World Cerambycidae Catalog
2.Roguet J.-P. (2013) Lamiaires du Monde (Coleoptera Cerambycidae Lamiinae)
3.Eastern Forest Insects
Whiteford L. Baker. 1972. U.S. Department of Agriculture · Forest Service.