Twig Pruner – Elaphidionoides villosus

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Twig Girdler (Oncideres cingulata)

Latin Name: Oncideres cingulata

Common Name: Twig Girdler/ the Hickory Girdle

Appearance:

  • Adult long-horned beetles range in size from 1/2 to 5/8 inch in length.
  • They have a wide, ashy-gray stripe across the middle of the wing coverings and are greyish brown in appearance. At least as long as the body are the antennae.
  • The eggs are white with an elongate oval shape and around 3/32 inches.
  • At maturity, the larvae are white, cylindrical, legless grubs that grow approximately 3/4 inches long.

Host plants:

Twig girdlers may be found on various trees, including pecan, hickory, persimmon, and elm. Oaks, honey locusts, hackberry, poplar, dogwood, sourwood, and numerous fruit trees are also attached.

Territory:

This insect may be found from New England to Florida and as far west as Kansas and Arizona.

Damage caused by Twig Girdler:

The fruiting area of infested pecan trees is most often greatly diminished, resulting in low nut returns the following year and sometimes longer. In young timber plantations and natural reproduction, repeated girdling of terminals causes forks, crooks, and other stem deformities. Girdled seedlings can cause significant losses in pecan nurseries near infected woodlots.

Life history and Habits:

From late August through early October, the adults appear. They marry before oviposition and girdling the twigs, feeding the delicate bark around branch ends. A female beetle girdles twig ends, leaving only a thin column of wood connected that readily breaks. Eggs are deposited during or after the cutting process but never before the beetle cuts. Each female lays 50 to 200 eggs, which hatch in around three weeks. The larvae develop quickly in the spring after overwintering and tunnel toward the twig’s end, eating exclusively on the woody component of the twig and leaving the bark intact. Pupation lasts 12 to 14 days and occurs in August and September. The adult to emerge eats a circular hole in the bark. Every year, there is a new generation.