Bug card No. 1076 of 1,500
Ponderous borer
Trichocnemis spiculatus
The ponderous borer is a big longhorn beetle from the pine forests of western North America. It has long feelers on its head. Its babies spend years chewing tunnels deep inside old pine trees.
Lives in
Western North America, in pine forests
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. Just watch it and let it go on its way.
What does it eat?
Its babies eat the wood of dead and dying pine and Douglas fir trees.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Ponderous borer about 0.4 km/h (0.25 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It is the biggest wood boring beetle in Colorado.
2
The mother lays her eggs in cracks in the bark of pine trees.
3
The babies dig tunnels right through the wood, all the way to the middle of the tree.
4
It takes several years for a baby to grow up into a beetle.
you asked
Most asked questions about Ponderous borer
?What does the ponderous borer eat?
Its babies eat the wood of dead and dying pine trees.
?Where does the ponderous borer live?
In the pine forests of western North America.
?Is the ponderous borer dangerous?
No, it is harmless to people.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Trichocnemis spiculatus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Cerambycidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Cerambycidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Pine sawyer, Western pine sawyer, Spined woodborer, Ponderosa pine borer
Where the facts come from
- Trichocnemis spiculatus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Ryan Bavetta. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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