Trichodesma cristata – Anobiid beetle

Adult: 5-6mm.

Order Coleoptera/ Family Anobiidae – Death-watch beetles

The larvae of Trichodesma spp. feed in dry dead wood and have also been found to invade houses and other structures, in some cases, causing considerable damage to timbers. This species was intercepted in pheremone traps set out to catch bark beetles at the reserve. Many of the Anobiid species of North America are what is termed glabrous, (having little or no body hair) but this remarkable little species is very hairy, or a pubescent beetle as you can see. Intermixed with the light hairs are patches or tufts of stiffer black hairs making the genus, Trichodesma, easily recognized. Death-watch beetles get their name from the fact that they, like so many other borers, make a ticking noise in infested wood. The early Europeans gave them this name because when the sound was heard in the quiet of hospitals or the bedsides of the dying.