Four-banded Longhorn Beetle

The Four-banded Longhorn Beetle is a distinctive, Longhorn Beetle. It is predominantly black, with four wavy orangey-yellow bands on the wing cases, which can vary in patterning. Their legs, head, pronotum and antennae are all black.

Adult beetles begin to emerge in May and can be seen visiting flowers on sunny days, through to September. The four-banded Longhorn Beetle has an attraction to birch trees. They are pollen feeders and will often be found on flowers, such as umbellifers, near to birch trees.

As larvae, the Four-banded Longhorn Beetle lives in dead wood, boring their way through old tree trunks, stumps and logs. They are polyphagous in a variety of deciduous trees including, Alder, Beech, Birch, Hazel, Oak, Poplar and Willow, though they have a preference for Birch.

The species has a widespread but patchy distribution across Britain.