Saperda populnea

The adult is dark-coloured long-horned beetle with 5 small round yellowish orange spots on each elytra. A part of them or even all of them can miss. The body is 9-15 mm long. Larvae develop in branches and stems 1-2.5 centimetres in diameter. Female egglaying behaviour is characteristic. A horse shoe-shaped depression is cut into the bark through to the sapwood, and a single egg laid in each. These depressions may be closely grouped. This activity causes a gall-like swelling on the affected stem. The larva first feeds on the wound tissues induced by egglaying and then moves to the heartwood, where they pupate the following spring. Exit holes are round. Development takes one, respectively two year. Adult swarms in May and in June. Attacked branches easily break off under a gust of wind. It is a pest of young poplar and willow stands.