Jewel Beetles – Jewels of the Insect World

Meet the jewel beetle, a fascinating insect with dazzling, iridescent colors. Its beauty has captured many scientists, collectors, and enthusiasts. Join us as we delve into the captivating world of these shimmering insects, exploring their look, behavior, and the remarkable role they play in their ecosystems.

They are shiny iridescent beetles

Jewel beetles are a type of beetle that often gets confused with jewel bugs because of their shiny, colorful appearance. But here’s the scoop: Jewel bugs are actually part of the Scutelleridae family, while jewel beetles belong to the Buprestidae family. This family of beetles is one of the largest, with around 15,500 jewel beetle species, including about 1,200 found in Australia.

Jewel beetles, also called metallic wood-boring beetles, stand out for their shiny, colorful appearance. Instead of having color from pigments, their hues come from how light bounces off microscopic textures on their outer layer.

These species typically have an oval shape, with their vibrant colors displayed on their tough front wings. They come in various sizes, from tiny ones at around 3 millimeters long to large ones reaching over 7.5 cm.

Insect collectors particularly value the bigger and more stunningly colored jewel beetles. Their shiny outer wings have been used for making jewelry and decorations in countries like Japan, Thailand, and India. Many forest-dwelling tribes around the world use their colorful elytra as jewelry like earrings or necklaces.

Jewel beetle habitat

Jewel beetles are everywhere, except Antarctica. They’re found in Europe, North America, Australia, and Southeast Asia. In Southeast Asia, they’re still finding new kinds of jewel beetles. In recent years, they discovered four new species in Thailand and Indonesia.

You can find these metallic beetles in forests, woodlands, and heaths. They like to burrow into wood and can survive in various climates, including tropical regions. They prefer dead and decaying plants, especially in places where forest fires happen a lot. Their larvae typically inhabit wood or, less commonly, softer plant stems.

Diet

These wood-boring beetles are plant-eating insects. Adults usually eat nectar, but some prefer leaves. Meanwhile, most larvae eat under the bark or dig into wood, stems, or roots. With more than 15,000 species, each prefers certain trees or plants to hang out in. Certain types of jewel beetles can be highly destructive pests, capable of causing significant economic harm if they invade crops. Small species create bumps on trees, and some make tunnels in leaves. While some species can be invasive and cause damage to plants, they are not poisonous to humans or animals. If you have hoop pine furniture, watch out! Larvae dining on hoop pine can surprise you by popping out as adults up to 4 years later.

Jewel beetles have a range of predators, including insects, birds, mammals (like rodents and bats), and reptiles (such as lizards and snakes). For instance, ants can be a significant threat to jewel beetle larvae, while birds like woodpeckers prey on adult jewel beetles.

To defend themselves, jewel beetles have developed several strategies to boost their chances of survival. One of these strategies is their iridescent shells, which can deter birds. The iridescent shells’ color-changing ability confuses predators, making it hard for them to decide if the beetle is safe or dangerous.

Some iridescent beetle species will retract their bodies and drop to the ground when they sense danger. The others can also produce a chemical called buprestin, a toxin used to deter predators. Certain jewel beetles, such as the Amorphosoma penicillatum, act boldly. They mimic the bird droppings to scare off predators. When a threat comes close, they stay put instead of flying away like most other jewel beetles do.

Life cycle

Jewel beetles Buprestidae go through four main stages in their life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Their mating season takes place. They usually mate during the warm summer months when they are most active. Male beetles find females by sight, and females can mate with multiple males during the breeding season.

After mating, the female beetle uses her ovipositor to lay 70 eggs on the host trees, typically in the cracks found in the bark or under a shoot or stem. Once hatched, the larvae, called flatheaded borers bore through the roots, logs, stems, and leaves of various plants, ranging from trees to grasses.

The larvae go through several instars. These larvae, which can be quite long, may be delayed by adverse environmental conditions. In fact, some jewel beetles have been known to wait as long as 51 years to emerge.

Once they’re done being larvae, they enter the pupal stage, where they change into adult beetles. This stage can also last a while, even in tough conditions. When they finally emerge as adults, they don’t live for very long. The lifespan of jewel beetles is only about a few weeks. They spend their short lives mating and laying eggs for the next generation.

The jewel beetles is not endangered species —it’s in the “Least Concern” category. But some types of jewel beetles, especially the ones that bug people by damaging crops or furniture, might get wiped out by things like bug sprays or other chemicals. That can really hurt their numbers.

Damages of flatheaded borers

Fatheaded borers are larvae of jewel beetles. They hang out beneath the bark of trees, like tree trunks, branches, and roots. These species dig shallow, twisty tunnels in the soft parts of trees, messing up the tree’s insides. The most common type of flatheaded borer is the flatheaded appletree borer – Chrysobothris femorata. It’s a big problem for trees in places like nurseries and gardens all across North America.

The flatheaded appletree borer is a hungry bug that eats many different types of trees. It especially likes tasty trees like fruit, nuts, and fancy decorative ones. It doesn’t just stick to one type of tree; it’s been seen munching on over 30 different kinds!

When trees are infested with flatheaded borers, they start to look unhealthy. You might notice that they have very few leaves, some branches are dead, and there are areas on the main trunk or big branches where the bark comes off easily. Sadly, by the time you see these signs, the tree has been seriously weakened and it’s unlikely to recover.

The best way to manage flatheaded borers is by preventing their infestation. You can avoid borers by keeping your trees healthy. Here’s how to deal with flatheaded borers:

1. Prevent
   • Choose trees that are well-suited to the local growing conditions to avoid infestations.
   • In early spring, wrap tree trunks to stop female borers from laying eggs. However, this method has limited benefits. If you use wraps, check underneath them regularly for any damage.
   • Keep trees healthy by planting properly, using mulch, watering as needed, using fertilizer to fix nutrient deficiencies, and protecting trees from injuries caused by lawnmowers, trimmers, or root disruption.
2. Detect the signs of flatheaded borer as soon as possible: Check your trees often for signs of borers. Look for cracked bark, sawdust-like material, or oval holes made by adult borers.

3. Control:

   • Apply systemic insecticides to the soil in early spring or late fall to reduce borer attacks.
   • Get rid of beetles by pruning and removing dead or dying branches and trees.
   • Spray the bark with insecticides to destroy eggs and stop new attacks from borers.
   • Use sprays on the outside of trees when beetles are active and laying eggs, but remember to reapply several times throughout the summer.
4. Professional Assistance: If your flatheaded borer infestation is severe, you should seek professionals for help.