Asian long-horned beetle

noun

variants or Asian longhorned beetle or less commonly Asian longhorn beetle

: a large long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) that is a serious pest of hardwood trees and is native to China and Korea and has been introduced into North America and Europe

Note: The Asian long-horned beetle is black with white spots and has long antennae banded with black and white.

The creature is the Asian long-horned beetle, which kills trees by eating them from the inside and which has no natural enemies in the United States.

—David Stout

Her tree was among the first of 470 maples, ashes, elms and horse chestnuts to be cut down, chipped up and burned in an effort to stop the spread of a new and unwelcome Chinese import: the Asian long-horned beetle.

—Wendy Cole

Word History

First Known Use

1990, in the meaning defined above