Hosts:  Arizona cypress and junipers

Symptoms/Signs:  External evidence consists of twig killing (called flagging), or whole trees fading. Under the bark, egg galleries are simple and longitudinal, 2 to 7 cm long, usually engraving the wood rather deeply. Egg niches are usually rather large and conspicuous. Larval galleries wander away from the parent galleries.

Adults are reddish brown to black, shiny beetles ranging in size from 2 to 4 mm long. Larvae are small white grubs, with brown head capsules.

Biology:  One to one and a half generations are produced per year. Attacks occur in spring and summer. Adults and larvae feed in the inner bark in galleries. Newly emerged adults feed on the pith of twigs of living trees prior to constructing egg galleries. Often twigs are hollowed out completely and killed.

Effects:  Main effects on their hosts are twig killing or tree mortality; however, these insects are not aggressive and are generally found attacking trunks, tops and limbs of weakened, dying or felled trees. Occasionally outbreaks occur.

Similar Insects and Diseases:  This is the main bark beetle genus attacking cypress and juniper. There are some woodboring beetles that attack these trees. Bark beetles are distinguished from woodborers by the shape and location of the galleries and size of the adults and larvae. Galleries of woodborers extend both in the bark and wood. Woodborer larvae and adults are larger than bark beetles.

References:  23, 81