Subject: Black flying bug in large window
Geographic location of the bug: UK
Date: 04/18/2018
Time: 01:56 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: For the first time I’ve been seeing these beetles (?) in a large window in our house. Half a dozen will be seen over the course of a day. The seem to crawl on it around the window, in our sitting room only. No food is present, no flour in the house.
The are approx 5mm long. The can fly but are slow to do so.
Have seen a few for the last couple of months, but now we are in Springtime the appear more frequently.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
How you want your letter signed: DS
Dear DS,
This looks to us like a Deathwatch Beetle in the genus Ptilinus, and according to BugGuide: “Larvae are wood-borers [our spp. in hardwood.” UK sightings are documented on UK Beetle Recording and according to the Website of the Watford Coleoptera Group: “A wood borer, colonies of which are usually found in dry exposed Faguswood but a wide variety of hosts have been recorded including Sambucus, Fraxinus, Acer, Quercus, Ulnus etc as well as plywood and ornamental timber ¹. Both standing and felled timber are attacked.”