Some have been found attacking healthy trees and can be a very serious tree pest, particularly in the west. Each species of bark beetle forms a particular pattern while excavating their gallery networks. These galleries permit the entrance of fungi that rots the bark. Scolytidae Ambrosia beetles are elongate and cylindrical. The head is usually concealed, narrower than pronotum .
Tarsi are short, with short first segment.
Antennae are elbowed and clubbed. Adults burrow through the bark and into the tree. Adults spend most of their lives in the burrows. Adult females emerging to find a new host tree carry the fungus with them to culture in a new burrow.