Lesser Capricorn Beetle Cerambyx scopolii

Scientific Name: Cerambyx scopolii (Cerambycidae).

English Name: Lesser Capricorn Beetle; Capricorn Beetle (Longhorn family).

French Name: La Petite Capricorne (='little goat horn'); la Capricorne de Scopoli (='Scopoli's goat horn').

5 Key Characters:

• head to tail 18 - 25 mm long. 
• antennae clearly longer than body in male by several segments, just longer than body in female.
• makes audible squeak if distressed.
• black elytra (wing cases) and pronotum (thorax) are rough surfaced and wrinkled looking.
• adults can be seen nectaring on flowers (hawthorn, elder, umbellifers).
  

Lookalikes: Great Capricorn Beetle Cerambyx cerdo, which is much larger (more than twice as long), much rarer and never nectars on flowers.


Habitat: The larvae grow in a wide range of decidous trees -- in woodlands poplar, beech, elm, linden, hornbeam, oak, willow and chestnut; also in orchards -- hazelnuts, apples, cherries, plums. They eat the wood.

Adult Active Period: April-May-June-July-August.


Status: Common.


Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Female in our orchard, probably newly emerged from apple wood.

Female in our orchard, probably newly emerged from apple wood.

Female in our orchard, probably newly emerged from apple wood.

Female in our orchard, probably newly emerged from apple wood.

Female in our orchard, probably newly emerged from apple wood.

Male, probably newly emerged from oak in our firewood.

Male, probably newly emerged from oak in our firewood.

Male, probably newly emerged from oak in our firewood.

Male, probably newly emerged from oak in our firewood.