''Dryobius sexnotatus'' is a species of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

in the family

Cerambycidae The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae), also known as long-horned or longicorns, are a large family of beetles, with over 35,000 species described. Most species are characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than ...

. It is the only species in the

monospecific In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

genus ''Dryobius''.

Taxonomic history

The species was initially described by

Thomas Say Thomas Say (June 27, 1787 – October 10, 1834) was an American entomologist, conchologist, and Herpetology, herpetologist. His studies of insects and shells, numerous contributions to scientific journals, and scientific expeditions to Florida, Ge ...

, who named it ''Callidium 6-fasciatum''. He placed it in the genus ''

Callidium ''Callidium'' is a genus of beetles in the family Cerambycidae, containing the following species: * '' Callidium angustipennis'' Chemsak, 1964 * '' Callidium antennatum'' Newman, 1838 * '' Callidium bifasciatum'' Fabricius, 1787 * '' Callidium b ...

''. In 1850,

John Lawrence LeConte John Lawrence LeConte (May 13, 1825 – November 15, 1883) was an American entomologist of the 19th century, responsible for naming and describing approximately half of the insect taxa known in the United States during his lifetime,

transferred the species to be the sole member of his newly-

circumscribed In geometry, the circumscribed circle or circumcircle of a polygon is a circle that passes through all the vertices of the polygon. The center of this circle is called the circumcenter and its radius is called the circumradius. Not every polyg ...

genus ''Dryobius'', making the name ''D. 6-fasciatus''. LeConte emended the

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

from ''6-fasciatus'' to ''sexfasciatus'' in 1859. In 1957,

Earle Gorton Linsley Earle Gorton Linsley (May 1, 1910 in Oakland, California – March 8, 2000) was an American entomologist. In study at the University of California, Berkeley Linsley gained a Bachelor of Science in 1932, a Master of Science in 1933, and Doctorate i ...

coined the

nomen novum In biological nomenclature, a ''nomen novum'' (Latin for "new name"), new replacement name (or replacement name, new substitute name, substitute name) is a scientific name that is created specifically to replace another scientific name, but only w ...

''Dryobius sexnotatus'' for this species as there was already a

senior homonym In biology, a homonym is a name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another such name, that belongs to a different taxon. The rule in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is that the first such name to be published is the se ...

with the same specific name used by a beetle described by

Guillaume-Antoine Olivier Guillaume-Antoine Olivier (; 19 January 1756, Les Arcs near Toulon – 1 October 1814, Lyon) was a French entomologist and naturalist. Life Olivier studied medicine in Montpellier, where he became good friends with Pierre Marie Auguste Brou ...

prior to Say's description. The etymology of the generic name comes from the Greek words ''tree'' and ''to live''.

Distribution

Most specimens of ''D. sexnotatus'' come from the

Ohio River Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinoi ...

, but it has been documented in at least fourteen states in the eastern United States.

Biology

Its

larvae A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

eat

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

basswood ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

, and

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

trees. Its flight period ranges from early March through early September, but is most common from mid-June through mud-July. The

pheromones A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...

produced by males include 1-(1H–pyrrol-2-yl)-1,2-propanedione and (R)-3-hydroxyhexan-2-one.

References

Cerambycinae Beetles described in 1957 Beetles of the United States Taxa named by John Lawrence LeConte {{Cerambycinae-stub