Red-Headed Ash Borer

Red-headed ash borer on tree bark
Scientific Name
Neoclytus acuminatus
Family
Cerambycidae (longhorned beetles) in the order Coleoptera (beetles)
Description

The red-headed ash borer is a common Missouri longhorned beetle. Adults resemble wasps, but they are harmless to people. The colors and markings are distinctive. Their larvae feed on a variety of dead or dying hardwoods, including oak, hickory, persimmon, and hackberry, as well as ash. This helps the decomposition process and enriches the soil. Red-headed ash borers can damage felled wood intended for lumber and can sometimes emerge from firewood carried indoors and not yet burned.

Learn more about this and other longhorned beetles on their family page.

Media Gallery
Red-headed ash borer on tree bark
The larvae of red-headed ash borer (Neoclytus acuminatus) feed on a variety of dead or dying hardwoods, including oak, hickory, persimmon, hackberry, as well as ash. This helps the decomposition process and enriches the soil.
Donna Brunet
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Red-headed ash borer on tree bark
Similar Species
About Land Invertebrates in Missouri
Invertebrates are animals without backbones, including earthworms, slugs, snails, and arthropods. Arthropods—invertebrates with “jointed legs” — are a group of invertebrates that includes crayfish, shrimp, millipedes, centipedes, mites, spiders, and insects. There may be as many as 10 million species of insects alive on earth today, and they probably constitute more than 90 percent all animal species.