Oncid ID is limited taxonomically to the adult form of the "twig girdlers," a large group of longhorned beetles in the tribe Onciderini (Cerambycidae: Lamiinae). The tribe currently contains 82 genera and ~553 species. Several lamiine taxa native to the Afrotropic (e.g., Prosopocerini, Sternotomini) and Australasian regions (e.g., Polyacanthia sp.) share many characteristics with Onciderini. However, these taxa are not known to girdle branches and have never been proposed as members of Onciderini. As such, they are not treated in this tool.
Members of this group are known to attack more than 50 different woody plant families, including many economically and agriculturally important species such as avocado, cocoa, coffee, guava, grape, peach, pecan, and sweet potato. Within their native range, trees attacked by these beetles are often severely damaged or killed. The potential introduction of exotic twig girdler species into the USA poses a serious risk to our native trees.
Geographically, Oncid ID is restricted to the natural range of the twig girdlers, the Nearctic and Neotropical regions. Onciderini are widely distributed from the USA, through all countries in Central and South America. In the Antilles, they are known from all countries and territories in the region EXCEPT: Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Aruba, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Martin, and Turks and Caicos Islands. Although two twig girdlers were originally described from Chile in 1859, this is likely an erroneous record as no members of this group have been collected there since (J.E. Barriga, pers. communication).
The original Oncid ID was last updated in 2015 and was hosted on the lead author’s personal research website. In 2026, the original tool was migrated to and is hosted by USDA-APHIS-PPQ-S&T’s Identification Technology Program.
Since the original release of this tool, there have been significant changes to the taxonomy of Onciderini including: (1) synonymy of Onocephalini with Onciderini, resulting in the transfer of Onocephala Sturm, 1843, Pseudoperma Dillon and Dillon, 1946Dillon and Dillon, 1946:
Dillon LS, Dillon ES. 1946. The tribe Onciderini (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) Part II. Reading, Scientific Publications, Reading Public Museum and Art Gallery, Number 6. 189–413 pp., and Stethoperma Lameere, 1883 to Onciderini (Souza et al. 2024Souza et al. 2024:
Souza DS, French RLK, Silva Jr. JO, Nearns EH, Marinoni L, Swift IP, Miller KB, Sperling FAH, Monné M. 2024. Cutting the sap: First molecular phylogeny of twig-girdler longhorn beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae: Onciderini) suggests shifts in host plant attack behaviours contributed to morphological evolution. Systematic Entomology. 502:369–389.); (2) synonymy of Jamesia Jekel, 1861Jekel, 1861:
Jekel H. 1861. Observations suggérées par les notes de M. Chevrolat sur les cérambycides de M. Thomson. Journal of Entomology. 1:255–262. with Hypselomus Perty, 1832Perty, 1832:
Perty JAM. 1832. De insectorum in America meridionali habitantiam vitae genere, moribus ac distributione geographica observationes nonnullae. Delectus animalium articulatorum quae in itinere per Brasilian annis MDCCCXVII–MDCCCXX jussu at auspiciis Maximiliani Josephi I, Bavariae regis augustissime peracto collegerunt Dr. J. B. de Spix et Dr. C. F. Ph. de Martius. Monachii: 61–124. (Souza et al. 2024Souza et al. 2024:
Souza DS, French RLK, Silva Jr. JO, Nearns EH, Marinoni L, Swift IP, Miller KB, Sperling FAH, Monné M. 2024. Cutting the sap: First molecular phylogeny of twig-girdler longhorn beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae: Onciderini) suggests shifts in host plant attack behaviours contributed to morphological evolution. Systematic Entomology. 502:369–389.); (3) synonymy of Psyllotoxus Thomson, 1868Thomson, 1868:
Thomson J. 1868. Révision du groupe des oncidérites (Lamites, cérambycides, coléoptères). Physis Recueil d'Histoire Naturelle. 2(5):41–92. and Taricanus Thomson, 1868Thomson, 1868:
Thomson J. 1868. Révision du groupe des oncidérites (Lamites, cérambycides, coléoptères). Physis Recueil d'Histoire Naturelle. 2(5):41–92. with Oncideres Lacordaire, 1830Lacordaire, 1830:
Lacordaire JT. 1830. Mémoire sur les habitudes des insectes coléoptères de l'Amérique méridionale. Annales Des Sciences Naturelles. 21:149–194. (Souza et al. 2024Souza et al. 2024:
Souza DS, French RLK, Silva Jr. JO, Nearns EH, Marinoni L, Swift IP, Miller KB, Sperling FAH, Monné M. 2024. Cutting the sap: First molecular phylogeny of twig-girdler longhorn beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae: Onciderini) suggests shifts in host plant attack behaviours contributed to morphological evolution. Systematic Entomology. 502:369–389.); (4) description of new genera Lingafelteria Nearns and Tavakilian, 2012, Natasomus Vlasák, Nearns and Santos-Silva, 2025, Thomsonista Nearns and Nascimento, 2019Nearns and Nascimento, 2019:
Nearns EH, Nascimento FEL. 2019. A new genus and seven new species of Onciderini Thomson, 1869 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae) from Central and South America. Insecta Mundi. 0688:1–16., and Velozideres Nearns, 2019. Additionally, many new species have been described, species have been synonymized, and species have been transferred amongst onciderine genera.
Sections of the tool were updated to reflect these recent taxonomic changes, including the addition of a "Taxonomy" section for all genera; a "Disclaimer" section for genera that have undergone recent taxonomic changes; a factsheet for Lingafelteria; and the alignment of "Included Species" lists with the Titan database (Tavakilian and Chevillotte 2026Tavakilian and Chevillotte 2026:
Tavakilian GL and Chevillotte H. 2026. Titan: base de données internationales sur les Cerambycidae ou Longicornes. Version 4.0. Accessed March 2026.). Various editorial, stylistic, and photographic improvements were also made. Most core identification content, including the key and fact sheet sections, Diagnostic Features, and Geographic Distribution, remains unchanged pending a future comprehensive update. For more information on updates, see the Release notes page.
