On November 1st, 2002 Mr Clive Naunton was brought a specimen of the South American longhorn beetle Trachyderes strigatus (F.) (Cerambycidae: Trachyderini) by a fellow worker at the Boulton and Paul woodyard at LakeLothing, Oulton Broad (TM 59) (see photograph). The firm imports large quantities of foreign timber for their joinery business - particularly Hemlock (Tsuga sp.) from North America and Sapele (Entandrophragma) from West Africa but neither of these woods or countries would have been the original source of the beetle. After photographing the beetle on November 4th, Mr Naunton placed it on a broom bush on the heath near the woodyard. Incredibly for an exotic beetle in the open during our winter, it remained alive on the bush until at least December 22nd – the last time Mr Naunton looked for it in 2002. On January 9th, 2003 he found it dead in the snow under the bush.
T. strigatus is a native of South America and, like almost all longhorn beetles, its larvae are wood-borers - in this case attacking a variety of fallen or felled timber including Ficus, Eucalyptus and Virola. In Tachyerges species the body is nearly always multicoloured, the elytra are glabrous and individuals within a species can vary widely in size. Most of the one hundred or so Brazilian species are between 20 – 30 mm in length excluding their antennae (the Suffolk beetle was 28mm long).
Some foreign longhorn beetles (as either larvae or adults) are imported into this country with logs, timber or wooden cases but others occur after having accidentally flown onto a cargo during loading or after having been introduced into a ship’s hold with wooden dunnage. It is highly probable that it was in one of these ways that the beetle under discussion arrived in the county, although adult Trachyderes are also strongly attracted to ripe and rotting fruit so they are sometimes imported into this country with such cargoes. The majority of exotic beetle importations, as with T. strigatus, are of little or no economic importance as the beetles are unable to re-infest seasoned timber or establish themselves in the wild in a country foreign to them; one major exception is the Asian Longhorn Anoplophora glabripennis Mots. which has recently established itself in North America and which was imported into Felixstowe in July, 2000 (see White Admiral 47: 24 ).
I am always very keen to see any exotic or stored product beetles (e.g. those found in foodstuffs for human or pet consumption) however large or small they may be. They can be sent to me at the address below, alive or dead in a crush-proof container such as a film canister (containing a little tissue paper for protection) wrapped in bubblepack or in a Jiffibag.
I thank Howard Mendel, The Natural History Museum, London for naming the beetle and Clive Naunton for details of the capture and for allowing us to use his photograph.
Costa Lima, A. Da (1955). Insetos do Brasil 9: Coleópteros part 3 . Tenebrionoidea – Phytophagoidea. Escola nacional de Agronomia.
David R. Nash, Coleoptera Recorder, 3 Church Lane, Brantham, Suffolk CO11 1PU.
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