species known from Europe, Russia, China,

Japan, Canada, and the USA, extending to

northern latitudes. Lepturinae is only about

4 percent of the world longhorn fauna, but

in Britain, for example, it comprises more

than 30 percent of the fauna. New species

are still being discovered in eastern Asia,

especially in the mountains of China

above | Rhagium bifasciatum

A common European spring

species; larvae feed under

the bark of dead deciduous

or coniferous wood.

opposite | Desmocerus palliatus

This North American beetle feeds

on living elder wood, and is

probably a mimic of distasteful

net-winged beetles (Lycidae).

Larvae of most Lepturinae feed on well-decayed

wood, and hence few species are pests of timber.

Probably the larvae get most of their nutrition from

fungi in the wood, and unusually for a longhorn,

the European Pseudovadonia livida has abandoned

wood feeding altogether, developing instead on

fungal mycelia in the soil; it feeds specifically on the

underground parts of the fairy ring mushroom,

a common fungus in grasslands and meadows.