Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Polyphaga » Series Cucujiformia » Curculionoidea » Primitive Weevils (Brentidae) » Brentinae » Brentini » Arrenodes » Oak Timberworm (Arrenodes minutus)

Species Arrenodes minutus - Oak Timberworm

Oak Timberworm - Arrenodes minutus - male

Oak Timberworm Beetle - Arrenodes minutus - female

Oak Timberworm Arrhenodes minutus - Arrenodes minutus - male

Oak Timberworm - Arrenodes minutus - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Polyphaga

No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)

Superfamily Curculionoidea

Family Brentidae (Primitive Weevils)

Subfamily Brentinae

Tribe Brentini

Genus Arrenodes

Species minutus (Oak Timberworm)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Arrhenodes minutus, A. minuta

Explanation of Names

Arrenodes minutus (Drury 1770)

Size

♀7-14 mm, ♂7-22 mm(1)

Identification

snout is broad in males, long & narrow in females

♂

♀

Range

e NA (NS-FL to ON-ND-TX) - Map (2)(3)(4)(5)

Habitat

Deciduous forests, under bark (esp. of oaks)(2)

Season

mostly: May-Aug (BG data)

Life Cycle

Females lay eggs in living trees where sapwood exposed by injury; larvae bore into wood beneath(1)

Females lay 1 egg at a time, drilling a hole for each. This is a pain staking process and can take several hours. Male jaws are not designed for drilling but they have been known to stand guard while the female drills.(6)

Larva take 2-3 years to develop. Pupation in gallery near exit(7)

Males are territorial and guard egg-laying females(2)

Remarks

comes to lights

Works Cited

1.	Peterson Field Guides: Beetles Richard E. White. 1983. Houghton Mifflin Company.

2.	American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea Arnett, R.H., Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.

3.	Checklist of beetles (Coleoptera) of Canada and Alaska. Second edition Bousquet Y., Bouchard P., Davies A.E., Sikes D.S. 2013. ZooKeys 360: 1–402.

4.	A distributional checklist of the beetles (Coleoptera) of Florida. Peck & Thomas. 1998. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Gainesville. 180 pp.

5.	Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

6.	Hidden Company that Trees Keep: Life from Treetops to Root Tips James B. Nardi. 2023. Princeton University Press.

7.	Beetles of Eastern North America Arthur V. Evans. 2014. Princeton University Press.

Contributed by Matthew Roth on 27 April, 2006 - 8:06am
Additional contributions by cotinis, Mike Quinn, Ron M., v belov, Marci Hess
Last updated 24 September, 2023 - 10:55am

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