Project Description
The adult beetle is 10 to 16 mm long and elliptical in shape. It is metallic greenish-blue and has three lighter, very characteristic transverse sinuous bands on the back (Fig. a). Adults can live 3 weeks hidden in cracks in the bark and in bushes, feeding on leaves.
The larvae are quite elongated (they can reach 50 mm), slightly flattened, light in colour and with a larger head than the rest of the body; it has very visible jaws (Fig. b). The larval instar lasts from two to three years and develops under the cork bark, feeding on the cork layer closest to the sapwood and living conductive tissue, creating galleries of different diameters depending on their larval stage. They can make galleries that are over 2 m in length throughout their cycle.
Carry out a treatment with plant endotherapy (ENDOterapia Vegetal®) at the end of spring in a preventive or curative way to avoid or eliminate possible infestations. The treatment will act on the larvae when they feed on the living conductive tissue of the sapwood and the subcortical (under bark) cambium.