Nutrition

     The common name of Monochamus notatus is the northeastern pine sawyer beetle. This name is relevant in that pines or coniferous trees play an important role in not only the life cycle of the beetle, but also in its diet. Females deposit eggs into small slits they have chewed in a form of coniferous wood. Most often, the eggs are laid in dead, dying, or decaying wood. When the larvae emerge, they immediately begin feeding below the bark’s surface. Young larvae will feed on inner bark, cambium, and outer sapwood (Resh and Carde 2003). This feeding results in the formations of surface galleries. These galleries are filled with saw dust and other debris left behind during the feeding process. As a larva matures, it begins boring back to the surface of the wood. It will chew through the wood’s surface and emerge as a full grown adult. The adults follow a similar diet to the larvae, but the adult is not limited to a single piece of wood. Adults will eat the bark of healthy pines, but often they return to dead or dying pines to feed, mate, and lay eggs. The beetles have special digestive enzymes in their gut which aid in the breaking down of these materials. Final digestion of all nutrients is carried out in the midgut cell surface (Resh and Carde 2003). Additionally, northeastern pine sawyer beetles have an open circulatory system. This allows them to transport food, nutrients, and water around its body (Resh and Carde 2003).

 

Photo Credit: Dr. Jim Appleby, University of Illinois
Location: United States Department of Agriculture