Red-legged Jewel Beetle vs Japanese Pine Sawyer

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Red-legged Jewel Beetle Japanese Pine Sawyer
Scientific Name Castiarina rufipennis Monochamus alternatus
Order Coleoptera Coleoptera
Family Buprestidae Cerambycidae
Size 10-15 mm 18-28 mm
Habitat Woodlands Forests
Diet Nectar Feeders Wood Feeders
Regions Australia East Asia, Japan/Korea
Conservation Least Concern Least Concern

Red-legged Jewel Beetle

A medium-sized jewel beetle with reddish-brown elytra and metallic green thorax. It visits flowers in eucalypt woodlands across southern Australia.

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Did You Know?

The genus Castiarina contains about 500 species, all found only in Australia and New Guinea.

Japanese Pine Sawyer

A large longhorn beetle known as 'matsu-no-madara-kamikiri,' responsible for transmitting pine wilt disease in Japan. The larvae develop in pine wood, and adults carry the devastating pine wood nematode.

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Did You Know?

This beetle vectors the pine wood nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus), which has killed millions of pine trees across Japan since the disease was first described in 1905.