Anoplophora is a genus of beetles in the longhorn beetle family (Cerambycidae). They are native to Asia.McDougall, D. N. Anoplophora chinensis. USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry. North American Forest Commission Exotic Forest Pest Information System (NAFC-ExFor). 2001. Most are large and colorful and thus are depicted in artwork and sought after by beetle collectors.Hoebeke, E. R. and G. Page. (2002). Longhorned beetles of the genus Anoplophora and lithography: Alien invaders in the eye of the beholder! American Entomologist 48(4) 200-06. The genus also includes several notorious pest insects.

Description Beetles of Anoplophora are 1 to 5 centimeters in length. They are spotted or banded with a range of color patterns in shades of yellow, blue, purple, and white. They have very long antennae. One characteristic that is particularly useful for distinguishing the species from one another is the structure of the male genitalia.Wu, W. and S. Jiang. (1989). A taxonomic study of the male genitalia of the genus Anoplophora Hope (Col. Cerambycidae). Acta Entomologica Sinica 2, 012.

Impacts Several Anoplophora species are major pests of urban, ornamental, and agricultural trees.

The Asian long-horned beetle (A. glabripennis) is native to China and Korea, and it is now widespread in Europe as an introduced species. Populations of this beetle have been detected in some locations in North America, including Toronto, Chicago, New Jersey, Ohio, Massachusetts, and New York City, and have either been declared eradicated, or are currently being dealt with under an eradication program. Many tree species can serve as hosts to the beetle, but it especially favors maples.Smith, M. T., et al. (2009). Asian longhorned beetle Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky): Lessons learned and opportunities to improve the process of eradication and management. American Entomologist 55(1) 21-26.

The citrus long-horned beetle (A. chinensis; syn. A. malasiaca) has been introduced from Asia to Europe and North America. It is a pest of citrus and other fruit and nut trees. It infests forest trees and ornamentals. It attacks over 100 species of trees, shrubs, and herbs from many plant families. Damage from its wood-boring larvae can kill trees.

Diversity In a 2002 revision of the genus, 36 species were recognized. At least nine more species have been described since then, and additional revisionary work has subsumed several other genera into Anoplophora, so it includes over 50 species at present.

Genomics Chromosome-level genome assemblies for species in the genus Anoplophora were published in 2026, including Anoplophora glabripennis and Anoplophora malasiaca. The genome sizes are approximately 708–730 Mb, with over 95% of each assembly anchored to 10 and 15 chromosomes, respectively. The assemblies have BUSCO completeness scores above 99%, and approximately 23,000–23,500 protein-coding genes were predicted.

Species

Anoplophora albopicta (Matsushita, 1933) Anoplophora amoena (Jordan, 1895) Anoplophora ankangensis (Chiang, 1981) Anoplophora asuanga Schultze, 1923 Anoplophora beryllina (Hope, 1840) Anoplophora birmanica Huedepohl, 1990 Anoplophora bowringii (White, 1858) Anoplophora cheni Bi & Ohbayashi, 2015 Anoplophora chiangi Hua & Zhang, 1991 Anoplophora chinensis (Forster, 1771) Anoplophora coeruleoantennata (Breuning, 1946) Anoplophora davidis (Fairmaire, 1886) Anoplophora decemmaculata Pu, 1999 Anoplophora elegans (Gahan, 1888) Anoplophora fanjingensis Yang, Yang & Tian, 2020 Anoplophora flavomaculata (Gressitt, 1935) Anoplophora freyi (Breuning, 1946) Anoplophora fruhstorferi (Aurivillius, 1902) Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky, 1854) Anoplophora graafi (Ritsema, 1880) Anoplophora granata Holzschuh, 1993 Anoplophora gressitti Ohbayashi & Bi, 2014 Anoplophora horsfieldii (Hope, 1842) Anoplophora huangjianbini Wang & He, 2021 Anoplophora imitator (White, 1858) Anoplophora irregularis (Aurivillius, 1924) Anoplophora jianfenglingensis Hua, 1989 Anoplophora leechi (Gahan, 1888) Anoplophora longehirsuta Breuning, 1968 Anoplophora lucipor Newman, 1842 Anoplophora lurida (Pascoe, 1857) Anoplophora macularia (Thomson, 1865) Anoplophora mamaua Schultze, 1923 Anoplophora medenbachii (Ritsema, 1881) Anoplophora multimaculata (Xie & Wang, 2015) Anoplophora ogasawaraensis Makihara, 1976 Anoplophora oshimana (Fairmaire, 1895) Anoplophora puxian Wang & He, 2021 Anoplophora quadrifasciata (Breuning, 1961) Anoplophora rubidacorpora Xie, Shi & Wang, 2015 Anoplophora ryukyuensis Breuning & Ohbayashi, 1964 Anoplophora sebastieni Duranton, 2004 Anoplophora siderea Bi, Chen & Ohbayashi, 2020 Anoplophora similis (Gahan, 1900) Anoplophora sollii (Hope, 1840) Anoplophora stanleyana Hope, 1840 Anoplophora tianaca Schultze, 1923 Anoplophora tonkinea (Pic, 1907) Anoplophora viriantennata Wang & Chiang, 1998 Anoplophora wusheana Chang, 1960 Anoplophora zonator (Thomson, 1878)

References

Further reading

Lingafelter, S. W. and E. R. Hoebeke. Revision of Anoplophora (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). The Entomological Society of Washington, Washington, D.C. 2002. 238 p.