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Sticker of Rust pine borer
Bug card No. 3698 of 4,939

Rust pine borer

Arhopalus rusticus
Eats: WoodBeetlesForests and woods6 legs

The rust pine borer is a long, flat, dark brown beetle with long feelers. It is a night beetle that hides under tree bark during the day. Its babies grow up inside pine and spruce trees.

Lives in
Europe, northern Asia and the USA, and brought to Australia, in conifer forests
Length
1 to 3 cm (0.39 to 1.2 in)
Top speed
about 0.44 km/h (0.27 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its larvae chew tunnels in the wood of pine and spruce trees. The grown-ups are busy finding a mate.
For real!Photo of Rust pine borer
Picture by (c) Karol Ox, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Rust pine borer about 3 cm long (1.2 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 8.2 seconds

How big is Rust pine borer compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

At night it flies towards lights, so it sometimes visits lamps near forests.

2

One mother beetle can lay up to 800 eggs in cracks in thick bark.

3

Its larvae can grow longer than the grown-up beetle, up to about 4 centimetres.

4

From egg to grown-up beetle takes about two years.

you asked

Most asked questions about Rust pine borer

?Is the rust pine borer dangerous?

No. It is harmless to people. Its larvae live inside pine and spruce trees.

?How big is the rust pine borer?

It is about 1 to 3 centimetres long, with long feelers.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Arhopalus rusticus
Named by
Linnaeus, 1758
Group
Beetles
Family
Cerambycidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Cerambycidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Arhopalus rusticus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by (c) Karol Ox, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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More from the same group: Beetles

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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