The defining ivory dashes on the top of this beetle come in pairs. They are usually found in forests or lumberyards where the orange-brown adults eat leaves and twigs. They are small and most active in the summer when they are seen flying around on hot days.
Females lay one egg at a time in fissures or cracks in tree bark. Larval development can take years. After hatching, they bore deep into tough, central heartwood of a tree, destroying it from the inside. Trees such as oak, maple, hickory and ash are popular hosts for larval infestation.
They can be found throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Because they can compromise the integrity of the wood as they tunnel through it, Ivory Marked Beetles may become a nuisance to the lumber industry. Sometimes wood gets harvested, and the small grubs escape detection and find themselves part of a table, floor, or sofa frame. Adult beetles can emerge from finished woodwork years after it was built or installed. (insectIdentification.org)
Nikon D7100
Tokina 100mm f/2.8 AT-X AF Pro D Macro
100mm – f9.0 – 1/100 – ISO 100
