Tupelo Borer
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Hosts
Tupelo. Has been found in water tupelo and blackgum (Craighead 1923, Lugger 1884). Yellow-poplar has been mentioned as a host, but this report seems questionable (Beutenmuller 1896)
Range
Reported only from a few widely scattered areas in eastern North America including South Carolina, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Canada (Blatchley 1910, Craighead 1923). More recently, it has been observed in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, loessal bluffs of Mississippi, and river bottomlands of Florida.
Description
Adult
Rather robust, somewhat flattened longhorn beetle of medium size, measuring 20 to 26 mm long (Blatchley 1910). Antennae about body length to slightly longer. Thorax tuberculate above and on sides. Femora swollen apically. Each elytron with indistinct M-shaped black mark behind middle.
Larva
Robust and white with short dark mandibles (Craighead 1923). Ampullar tubercles very large, spiracles large and strongly chitinized, and body sparsely covered with coarse to velvety pubescence.
Biology
Adults emerge in June (Craighead 1923). Females deposit eggs on the lower trunks of small living host trees, especially saplings. Larval habits are somewhat similar to those of the Goes borers. The larvae feed in the phloem and cambium, hollowing out cavelike cavities, then construct galleries into the sapwood and heartwood. Galleries extend 26 to 64 mm inward, 8 to 13 cm upward, then turn back to the bark surface. The new adults emerge through round exit holes. Thus, each insect leaves two holes--a large entrance and a small exit. The life cycle likely requires 2 years or longer.
Injury and Damage
Small to large areas of loosened bark, sometimes with coarse frass protruding from bark openings provide good evidence of infestation. Removing the bark reveals a large irregular cavity 5 to 8 cm in diameter packed with fibrous frass. Splitting an infested stem reveals the entrance and cavity under the bark, gallery, and exit. Bark scars resulting from previously healed attacks consist of rather large patchy scars with small round scars directly above. Attacks have been found on saplings from about 5 to 12 cm in diameter and at heights from slightly above ground to about 1.8 m. Populations are small and widely scattered; thus, overall damage has been minor.
Control
Woodpeckers sometimes capture the larvae. Direct control with chemicals applied as a spray or injected into galleries should be effective on high-value trees.
Gallery
 Photo by James Solomon, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org |  Photo by James Solomon, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org |
References
Solomon, J.D. 1995. Guide to insect borers of North American broadleaf trees and shrubs. Argic. Handbk. 706. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 735 p.
