Asian Longhorned Beetle

Anoplophora glabripennis — the Asian longhorned beetle — is one of the most economically destructive invasive forest insects in North America. Native to eastern China and the Korean peninsula, the species was first detected in Brooklyn, NY in 1996 in solid wood packing material from China and has since established outbreaks in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, and Toronto. Adults are 25-35 mm long with glossy jet-black elytra, scattered white spots, and impossibly long antennae (50-70 mm, longer than the body) banded in alternating black and white. The species is a textbook destructive invasive because she attacks healthy trees — not stressed, dying, or recently-killed wood like most native cerambycid borers. Larvae bore deep tunnels through the heartwood of hardwoods (especially maple, willow, elm, birch, poplar, horse chestnut), disrupting water and nutrient transport and weakening the wood structurally; multi-year infestation kills the tree. There is no known host-tree resistance and no native North American natural enemy effective at population control. The federal eradication strategy has been whole-tree removal: any tree showing signs of infestation, plus all surrounding host trees within a defined radius, is removed and chipped. Over 130,000 trees have been destroyed in US eradication efforts since 1996. Active eradication zones in Worcester County MA, central Long Island, and in the Toronto area continue. The species is one of the most-targeted insects in modern US APHIS regulatory pest management.