Texas Beetle Information

Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn


Mesquite Borer

Placosternus difficilis (Chevrolat, 1862)

Family Cerambycidae, Subfamily Cerambycinae, Tribe Clytini


 

Placosternus difficilis (Chevrolat, 1862)

Placosternus difficilis (Chevrolat, 1862)

(at bait)

Penitas, Hidalgo Co., Texas - November 4, 2004 (Bill Bouton)


Texas Placosternus difficilis County Records

 

County Record Source: E.G. Riley, Sept. 2006


Range: Southern California, Texas, Florida; northern Mexico, Honduras, Cuba, Bahamas (Monné & Hovore 2005)

Adult Activity: 

February to November, mostly spring and fall in south Texas. (Hovore et al. 1987)  
Mostly July through October in North Texas (Lingafelter & Horner 1993)

Larval Hosts: 

Prosopis, Acacia, Pithecellobium, Platanus, Citrus, Leucaena (Hovore et al. 1987) 

Behavior

Adults are active day and night, running rapidly along freshly cut branches of their host plants and feeding on the blossoms of Koeberlinia, Acacia, Baccharis, Bumelia, Clematis, and Solidago  (Hovore et al. 1987) 

Similar species: There are four species of Placosternus (Monné & Hovore 2005)

Texas Taxa:

Placosternus difficilis (Chevrolat) 
Placosternus erythropus (Chevrolat) - West and south TX, south to Costa Rica

Weblinks:

Wood Borers - TAMU

Placosternus difficilis - Florida State Collection of Arthropods

Etymology:

plac, -o (G). A tablet, plate; flat
stern, -o, =um (G). The breast, breastbone

Biography: Louis Alexandre Auguste Chevrolat - (1799 - 1884) was a French entomologist - Wikipedia


References:

Arnett, R.H., Jr., M.C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley & J.H. Frank. (editors). 2002. American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL. xiv + 861 pp.

Borror, D.J. 1960. Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms. National Press Books, Palo Alto. 134 pp.

Burke, H.R., J.A. Jackman, & M. Rose. 1994. Insects Associated with Woody Ornamental Plants. EEE - 00019. Texas A&M University, College Station. pp 1-166.

Hovore, F.T. & R.L. Penrose 1982. Notes on Cerambycidae coinhabiting girdles of Oncideres pustulata LeConte. Southwestern Naturalist, 27(1): 23-27.

Hovore, F.T., R.L. Penrose & R.W. Neck. 1987. The Cerambycidae, or longhorned beetles, of southern Texas: a faunal survey (Coleoptera). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 44(13): 283-334, 20 figs.

Lingafelter, S.W. & N.V. Horner. 1993. The Cerambycidae of north-central Texas. The Coleopterists Bulletin, 47(2): 159-191.

Linsley, E.G. 1964. The Cerambycidae of North America. Part V. Taxonomy and classification of the subfamily Cerambycinae, tribes Callichromini through Ancylocerini. Univ. Calif. Publs Ent., Berkeley, 22: 1-197, 60 figs., 1 pl.

Manley, G.V., & J.V. French. 1976. Wood boring beetles inhabiting citrus in the Lower Rio Grande valley of Texas USA. Part 1. Cerambycidae. Journal of the Rio Grande Valley Horticultural Society 30:45–53.

Monné, M.A. & F.T. Hovore. 2005. Electronic Checklist of the Cerambycidae of the Western Hemisphere. 393 pp.

Vogt, B.G. 1949. Notes on Cerambycidae from the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas. Pan-Pacific Entomologist 25(3):137-144; (4):175-184.


01 Nov 2009  © Mike Quinn / entomike@gmail.com / Texas Entomology / Texas Beetle Information