Longhorned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) are represented by more than 36,000 species worldwide and feed on diverse plant types from trees to grasses. This diversity can make it difficult to identify pest species that often have a questionable origin. It is important for forest and economic health officials to diagnose potential invaders because these foreign beetles may feed on or infect non-native plant species. This website is a multitool, providing resources for common diagnostic situations. There is a plan to make these resources more comprehensive, but they currently are situationally useful. The included factsheets allow the user to confirm their identification and find further guidance. Three user-friendly matrix-based Lucid keys are provided: one to conifer-feeding genera for when the host is known, a second to invader genera for a specimen with an unknown host (this includes hardwood feeders), and a third focused on worldwide conifer-feeding Monochamus species. Mitochondrial and nuclear barcodes are made available for the first time for many of these genera. These resources provide an informed starting point for intercepted samples, especially those from conifers.
In our conifer-feeder key, we treat all genera (88) of northern hemisphere longhorned beetles known to feed on solid conifer tree species (Lamiinae, Cerambycinae, Spondylidinae). Restriction to this group allows comprehensive treatment in the key. The Lepturinae and Prioninae are not comprehensively treated as they are a small percentage of interceptions and few feed on the solid wood used for shipping. This tool covers native USA genera to solve the problem of native taxa infesting the wood and posing as non-natives. We also include molecular data for various numbers of species, but usually a New and Old World species are included if the genus is Holarctic. Species within a Holarctic genus are sometimes monophyletic by region so they can be separated with DNA data (Monochamus, Megasemum, Clytus for the species sampled) but not always (Arhopalus, Tetropium, Acanthocinus).
The invasive genera key treats the most frequently encountered cerambycid invaders. The ‘invaders’ category of taxa consists of regularly intercepted conifer and hardwood-feeders (74 genera, including some in the conifer key). These taxa were chosen based on analysis of the USDA Port Information Network database (Haack 2006Haack 2006:
Haack, R.A. 2006. Exotic bark- and wood-boring Coleoptera in the United States: recent establishments and interceptions. Can. J. For. Res. 36, 269-288. https://doi.org/10.1139/X05-249) and the USDA Agriculture Risk Management database. The key has worldwide geographic coverage for critical invaders, including the top genera intercepted in the USA from major geographic regions (Africa, Asia, Pacific, Europe, South America, Caribbean, and Central America). We provide the first genetic data for many of these genera.
Our last key is to the species of Monochamus, the pine sawyer beetles. This allows the diagnosis of all the species feeding on conifers, which have been shown to form a clade (Gorring and Farrell 2023Gorring and Farrell 2023:
Gorring, P.S. and Farrell, B. 2023. Evaluating species boundaries using coalescent delimitation in pine-killing Monochamus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) sawyer beetles. Molec. Phylogenetics & Evolution 184: 10777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107777). Seventeen species are included, and DNA barcode data is provided.
This tool is primarily a resource to identify commonly intercepted Cerambycidae genera from solid wood. It is not comprehensive to the family or all intercepts, so it is best used as a screening aid for the included genera. The user of this tool can be confident in identifying Northern Hemisphere conifer feeding genera in the subfamily Spondylidinae, Cerambycinae, or Lamiinae. An attempt has been made to include all genera with plausible records of conifer feeding. A limited number of Prioninae and Lepturinae genera have been included as they are not often intercepted in solid wood but records do exist. It will help reduce ID possibilities if the wood is identified as a conifer or hardwood.
DNA sequence data is available here for most genera treated in the tool. These genes will allow a system for identifying specimens in hand to genus or many times species. This data has also been uploaded to GenBank. The benefit of using this dataset is that species identifications are based on a vouchered specimens while the identifications on GenBank are often incorrect and unverifiable. Each sequence is connected to an expert-determined specimen with its photo available on the fact sheet or image gallery. Visit the DNA page for more information on how these data were generated and how they can be used to make an identification.
