Diet

• Larvae: Feed beneath the bark of living, stressed, dying, or recently dead trees and shrubs, tunnelling through the cambium and outer sapwood. Different species specialize on a wide variety of hardwoods and, less commonly, conifers.

• Adults: Feed on leaves, young shoots, pollen, and occasionally flowers of their host plants.

Range

• The genus Agrilus is distributed worldwide and is one of the largest beetle genera, with more than 3,500 described species.

• Hundreds of species occur throughout Mexico, including the Pacific coast of Guerrero and the Zihuatanejo region.

• Greatest diversity is found in tropical and subtropical forests.

Habitat

• Inhabits tropical dry forests, tropical rainforests, pine-oak forests, thorn scrub, woodland edges, secondary forests, orchards, and urban landscapes.

• Larvae develop beneath the bark of trees, shrubs, vines, and woody stems, where they create characteristic winding galleries.

• Adults are commonly found on host plant foliage, flowers, and sunlit tree trunks.

Size

• Adult length: 3–20 mm (0.12–0.8 in), depending on the species.

• Body slender, elongated, and wedge-shaped, often with brilliant metallic green, blue, bronze, copper, or black colouration.