Adults are commonly about 24–60 mm long, excluding the antennae.
Fine-art photographic collection
Batocera rufomaculata
A giant longhorn whose larva can spend a year hidden inside a living fruit tree.
About this species
Mango stem borer
Batocera rufomaculata(De Geer, 1775)
Information reviewed17 July 2026
Batocera rufomaculata is a very large Asian longhorn beetle and a serious borer of mango and other broad-leaved trees. Eggs are laid on bark or damaged shoots; the newly hatched larva enters the wood, where concealed feeding can weaken branches and trunks long before the adult emerges.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Cerambycidae · Batocera
Source checked · checked 2026-07-17
South and Southeast Asia, with introduced populations including Madagascar and Indian Ocean islandsNative and introduced regional anchors — not a complete occurrence map.
Native across South and Southeast Asia; introduced to Madagascar, several Indian Ocean islands and other warm regions.
Tropical and subtropical forest, orchards, plantations and gardens containing suitable host trees.
Adults are active in warm conditions and may occur through much of the year in tropical climates.
Larvae tunnel in living stems and trunks; adults feed on bark, shoots and foliage.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Eggs laid on bark can hatch in about 10–15 days, and the young larva soon bores into the shoot where surface treatments can no longer reach it easily.
The concealed larval stage can last around a year, and the complete life cycle may take one to two years.
The first obvious symptom may be a drying shoot or weakened trunk, meaning much of the damage has already happened inside apparently solid wood.