Citrus Longhorned Beetle

Anoplophora chinensis — the citrus longhorned beetle — is the SISTER SPECIES to the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis — already in the Wild Files) and one of the most economically destructive INVASIVE WOOD-BORING BEETLES in the world. The species is native to East Asia (China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam) and has invaded multiple regions outside its native range — Italy (since 2000 — established population in Lombardy), Switzerland, Netherlands, France (multiple detections), and the US (eradicated detections in Tukwila, Washington in 2001 and metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia in 2008-2010). Adults are 25-35 mm long, jet-black with bright WHITE SPECKLED MARKINGS scattered across the elytra, and ANTENNAE NEARLY TWICE THE BODY LENGTH (alternately black-and-white banded — looking like miniature crocodile tails). The species is morphologically very similar to the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) but distinguished by: (1) BLUISH-WHITE BAND OF HAIRS at the base of the abdomen (visible from below — citrus longhorned has the band, Asian longhorned does not), (2) more distinctly raised tubercles on the elytra; (3) different egg-laying pit shape on host trees. The species attacks an even BROADER RANGE of host trees than its Asian longhorned cousin — OVER 100 DOCUMENTED HOST SPECIES — including citrus (the source of the common name; major economic impact in citrus orchards in southern Europe), maple, oak, willow, ash, plane tree, sycamore, plum, apple, pear, hazel, fig, beech, birch, and many other commercial and ornamental trees. The exceptional polyphagy makes the species an even greater global threat than its Asian longhorned relative. The species' biology is similar to Asian longhorned beetle: female beetles lay eggs in pits chewed into the lower trunk and exposed roots of host trees; larvae tunnel through the inner bark and sapwood over 1-2 years, eventually killing the host tree by destroying the cambium layer; adult emergence holes are large round 1-cm openings in the bark. The species is one of the most-quarantined insects in INTERNATIONAL PLANT TRADE — extensive regulatory restrictions on movement of bonsai plants, ornamental plants, and solid wood material from regions where the species occurs. Multiple intercepted shipments of Anoplophora chinensis (often inside imported bonsai plants from Asia) have been documented at US, Canadian, and European ports of entry. The species is featured in essentially every modern textbook discussion of invasive forest insect pests alongside the closely-related Asian longhorned beetle.