Red Longhorn Beetle - Stictoleptura rubra

Scientific Name: Stictoleptura rubra (syn. Leptura rubra) Cerambycidae.


English Name: Red Longhorn Beetle (Longhorn family).


French Name:

5 Key Characters:

• small to medium sized (10 - 20 mm long).
• the pronotum (thorax) has large swellings to the sides.
• females have red pronotum and elytra (wing cases), males have black pronotum and brownish-yellow elytra.
• often seen visiting flowers, but life cycle associated with conifers.
• centre of pronotum has short backwards pointing hairs.

Lookalikes: Other small to medium longhorns with plain elytra eg Grammoptera spp (eyes very close to jaws), Alosterna spp (tips of the wing cases rounded), Stenurella spp (tips of wing cases have cut off appearance), Pseudovadonia spp (very small, < 10 mm), Anastrangalia spp (pronotum does not have swellings) or Paracorymbia spp (pronotum has longer, upright hairs).

Habitat: Conifer forests (larvae develop in dead wood), adults visit flowers in the summer.


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


Status: Localised but widely distributed.


Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Female visiting Wild Carrot Daucus carota.

Female visiting Wild Carrot Daucus carota.