Beetles attacking softwoods can be drab and unattractive, whereas beetles on hardwoods are brightly colored and conspicuously marked. Adult flatheaded borers are 6 to 34mm long, boat-shaped and flattened. Wing covers are ridged or roughened. Larvae have flattened plates on the upper and lower surface of the first segment behind the head. They are whitish to yellow, with no legs and one to two inches long.
Abdominal segments are smaller than thorax segments.
The thorax bears four to six small transverse ridges on the median longitudinal ridge. Larvae feed in the unseasoned wood of hardwood trees, honeycombing the sapwood and packing mines tightly with granular frass. Primary host trees include ash, oak, hickory, persimmon and hackberry. A medium-sized, robust beetle from 14 to 18mm long, black and marked with yellow crossbands. One band on the wing cover is W-shaped.