They are brown or black and cylindrical. The legless larvae are about 5 mm long with a white body and brown head. Pine shoot beetles complete only one life cycle per year. They spend the winter months inside the thick bark at the base of living pine trees. Adults can fly several miles during this period in search of a suitable host.
Females lay eggs in gallery systems they bore between the inner bark and outer sapwood of the tree.
Egg galleries are 10 to 25 cm long. From April to June, larvae feed under the bark of the tree in separate feeding galleries 4 to 9 cm long. Mature larvae stop feeding, pupate, and emerge as adults. From July through October, adults tunnel out and fly to new pine shoots to feed. The beetles bore into the center of the shoot during maturation feeding, hollowing 2.5 to 10 cm of wood.