''Oncideres cingulata'', the twig girdler, is a brownish-gray beetle, typically in length, in the

longhorn beetle The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns (whose larvae are often referred to as roundheaded borers), are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by Antenn ...

family. It is characterized by long antennae, long.

Distribution

The species is found in Eastern and

Gulf Coast of the United States The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South or the South Coast, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The list of U.S. states and territories by coastline, coastal states th ...

Ecology

This beetle is widely known for the damage it causes to

pecan The pecan ( , , ; ''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the Southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed primarily in the U.S. states of Georgia ( ...

plantations, but also to lumber trees such as

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes 19 species accepted by ''Plants of the World Online''. Seven species are native to southeast Asia in China, Indochina, and northeastern India (Assam), and twelve ...

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

, poplar and

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical- montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ...

. In late summer and fall, the adult female girdles small branches, diameter, with its mandibles, cutting through the bark and into the wood. The resulting effect looks almost as if it were cut with a small saw. The female lays her eggs singularly in a separate cut into the wood, above the girdled section. Shortly after the twig is girdled and inserted with eggs, it will die and fall from the tree to the ground. The white, legless larva overwinters in the twig, then eats its way through woody tissue to the girdled point in the dead twig, and eventually closes itself in the twig with shredded wood fibers, then pupates over 12 to 14 days. The adult emerges and mates in the summer, feeding off tender woody shoots. This concludes the beetle's single yearly generation. Twig girdlers create a difficult infestation in plantations, as they occur late in the season close to nut harvesting. Collecting and burning dead twigs during the winter is key to fighting infestations. They can result in significant crop decreases in the following year, and can also result in the structural problems inherent to inexpert pruning.

References

*http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/1900 *

External links

HD video of an ''Oncideres cingulata''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7092028

cingulata Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra, is an order of armored New World placental mammals. The armadillos, whose species are split between the families Dasypodidae and Chlamyphoridae, are the only surviving members of the order. Two grou ...

Beetles of North America Beetles described in 1826