Longicorn from South Africa

Hopefully not a borer
Location: South Africa, Johannesburg, Randburg
November 6, 2011 3:28 am
Hi, Hope you can help me in sunny South Africa. Our Leapard Tree (caesalpinia ferrea) all of a sudden started to die, only the one, and on this one we found a bunch of the attached bugs!, are these a type of borer?. I hope there little guys are not the reason for my trees lack want for life…
Signature: A little desperate

Dear A little desperate,
Your suspicions that this is a type of borer beetle are correct.  This is one of the members of the Longhorned Borer or Longicorn Family Cerambycidae.  We wanted to try to identify the species, and our initial search brought us to a photo of Ceroplesis capensis on the Biodiversity Explorer website.  It looks similar to your individual, but since Ceroplesis capensis has four red stripes, it is most likely a different species.  We searched the genus name and found an image from a South African Postage Stamp that is named Ceroplesis militaris, and it looks very similar to your individual.

The iSpot website also has an image identified as a Cape Longhorn Beetle in the genus Ceroplesis that looks very similar to your individual.  We are relatively confident we have the species correct, and since this is definitely a Longhorn Borer Beetle, it might have been responsible for the demise of your tree.