a family of insects of the order Coleoptera. The body is oblong and measures 3-180 mm long. The antennae are often quite long, and the jaws are well developed. The body coverings are hard and diversely colored (often speckled). The larvae are fleshy, with a very large prothorax and special bulges—“motor callosities”—on the abdominal segments. The legs of most are not developed. The larvae live in wood (on which they also feed), occasionally in the stems of herbaceous plants, and less often in the soil (where they feed on roots). The development of the larvae usually lasts about a year, sometimes longer.
There are about 20,000 species distributed throughout the world, the most numerous being in the tropics. About 800 species are found in the USSR, of which the largest is the Callipogon relictus, which may measure up to 10 cm long. Many cerambycids are wood and lumber pests. In coniferous forests representatives of the genus Monochamus inflict severe damage. Oak trees are damaged by the Cerambyx cerdo. The Hylotrupes bajulus destroys wooden structures and telegraph poles in the forested steppe and steppe regions. Pests of structures and wooden articles are destroyed by treating the infested wood; preventive measures include impregnating the wood with beetle repellants or long-acting insecticides. In forests, control reduces mainly to destroying the infested trees and to the timely removal from the forest of dead trees, windfalls, freshly sawed lumber, and deadwood.
N. N. PLAVIL’sHCHIKOV