ARS | Publication request: Illustrated Key to the Longhorned Woodboring Beetles of the Eastern United States

Submitted to: The Coleopterists Bulletin
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: October 30, 2006
Publication Date: October 12, 2007
Citation: Lingafelter, S.W. 2007. Illustrated Key to the Longhorned Woodboring Beetles of the Eastern United States. Coleopterists Society Miscellaneous Publication. Special Publication No. 3, p.206.

Interpretive Summary: Longhorned beetles are very important to agriculture and the economy because they damage a variety of plants during their development. Recently, pests such as the Asian longhorn beetle have cost tens of millions of dollars of damage to trees and other agricultural products in the United States. This key provides a means to easily identify the adults of every species of longhorned beetle in the southeastern U. S. and about 98% of the species east of the Mississippi, including all known invasive species established in the region. This fully illustrated key allows the user to easily discriminate among taxa to arrive to an identification in about 10 minutes or less. This guide will be extremely important to port identifiers, regulatory personel associated with APHIS-PPQ, state extension entomologists, Forestry Service personnel, along with laypersons.

Technical Abstract: A fully illustrated key with over 600 automontage photographs of habiti and characters is presented to allow the easy identification of eastern U. S. Cerambycidae. Of the 400 species of Cerambycidae that occur east of the Rocky Mountains (excluding southern and western Texas), 377 species are treated in the key. Only a few rare or isolated taxa from the Great Plains, Great Lakes Region, or extreme upper New England are excluded. The key includes 418 couplets that are arranged such that most taxa will key out in less than 20 couplets and take about 10 minutes or less. The key uses only easily seen external characters, never requires dissection, and never requires both sexes of a species to be available. It emphasizes ease of identification over constraining genera, tribes, or subfamilies to remain together.