General morphology, classification and biology of Cerambycidae

Abstract

Cerambycids as economic pests are not only important with respect to forest trees but also for various agricultural and horticultural crops. Damage to crops is usually caused by larval feeding and, occasionally, by adult feeding or oviposition. Larvae of most cerambycid species are borers, feeding on living, dying, dead, or rotten plant stems, branches, or twigs. Most wood-boring species feed on subcortical tissues-at least initially. Later, they may burrow further into sapwood and-even hardwood-to continue feeding. Herbaceous feeders usually bore in host stems. Root feeders may bore in the roots, hollowing out and killing the roots of the host plants, or they may live in the soil and feed on the roots. In some species, larvae damage fruit; adults cause economic damage to leaves and male owers by feeding and to stems or branches by girdling.