The beetle may pose a threat to the nursery industry in Connecticut and to native and cultivated cedars, junipers and arborvitae. The antennae of the male are slightly longer than his body. The female has reddish brown wing covers, and a reddish-orange abdomen. The antennae are about three-fourths the length of her body. Adults emerge in the spring and mate.
Females lay eggs in bark crevices.
After hatching, larvae enter the bark, and by making serpentine galleries, feed on the phloem and cambium. These galleries are filled with coarse sawdust and fecal material. Full grown larvae enter the sapwood in the late summer, and make oval cells in which they pupate. The adults that emerge remain in the wood until spring. The tree often forms calluses along the edge of the serpentine galleries.