Asian Longhorned Beetle

** Visit the Massachusetts Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradication Program website **

(Click on an image below to see the captioned full-size version)
Figure 1		Figure 2		Figure 3		Figure 4		Figure 5		Figure 6

Scientific Name: Anoplophora glabripennis
Common Names: Asian Longhorned Beetle, Asian Longhorn Beetle, Starry Sky Beetle

Host plants:
The following tree species are considered to be good hosts for the Asian longhorned beetle:

Other susceptible trees include: Ash (Fraxinus, especially green ash, F. pennsylvanica), Silk tree (Albizia), Hackberry (Celtis), Mountain-ash (Sorbus), and Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum). A complete list of host species is available from USDA APHIS-PPQ.

Key ID Features:

• The Asian longhorned beetle is 0.75 - 1.5 inches long, with antennae that are 1 to 2 times its body length
• Adults are shiny black with irregular white spots. (Figures 1, 2)
Antennae have alternating black and white bands.
• Feet and antennae may have a bluish tinge.
• Adults are active from early summer through mid-fall.
• Adult females dig bowl-shaped holes in the bark, typically about 1/2 inch (15mm) in diameter, to bury their eggs in. These "oviposition pits" often appear orange in color.
• Larvae can grow to be 2.4 inches (60mm) in length, with segmented off-white bodies and brown mouthparts. They burrow beneath the bark and are rarely seen. (Figure 6)
• "Frass," the waste material produced by larvae and adults, looks like or sawdust/wood shavings and may be found around the base of infested trees or in the crooks of branches. Severely impacted trees may have exposed wood where larval feeding galleries (tunneling) is visible.

Description of damage:

• Larvae damage the tree by eating the outer sapwood, beneath the bark layer, creating hollowed out galleries in the wood.
• Females chew dime-sized oval grooves in the bark to deposit their eggs. (Figure 3)
• Exit holes 3/8” or larger in diameter (6-14mm) appear wherever adults have bored out of the tree. (Figure 4)
• Sawdust may appear on the ground or on tree branches where adults have exited from the tree. (Figure 5)
• Wounds caused by the beetles may ooze sap.

Similar species:

• The native whitespotted pine sawyer (Monochamus scutellatus) is also large and black but has less distinct white patches on the wing covers, no bluish tinge on the legs or antennae, and a dinstinctive white spot between the wing covers (Figure 2).
• The University of Vermont has more information about ALB look-alikes.

Fact sheets and references:

• USDA Asian Longhorned Beetle website
• Asian Longhorned Beetle and its Host Trees, US Forest Service and University of Vermont.
• Asian longhorned beetle biology and management in South Carolina, Clemson University
• Asian Longhorned Beetle in Canada, Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Last reviewed May 2024