Hylotrupes

Genus of beetles

Hylotrupes is a monotypic genus of woodboring beetles in the family Cerambycidae, the longhorn beetles. The sole species, Hylotrupes bajulus, is known by several common names, including house longhorn beetle, old house borer, and European house borer. In South Africa it also is known as the Italian beetle because of infested packing cases that had come from Italy. Hylotrupes is the only genus in the tribe Hylotrupini.

This species, originating in Europe, and having been spread in timber and wood products, now has a practically cosmopolitan distribution, including Southern Africa, Asia, the Americas, Australia, and much of Europe and the Mediterranean.

Hylotrupes bajulus can reach a body length of about , while mature larva can reach Ecologically it can be quite important as a scavenger of dead pine trees, pine fence posts, and similar objects, hastening their decay and collapse. The life cycle from egg to beetle typically takes two to ten years,

Hylotrupes bajulus preferentially attacks freshly produced sapwood of softwood timber. Contrary to the name "old house borer", the species is more often found in new houses; maybe because the beetles are attracted to the higher resin content of wood harvested more recently than 10 years earlier. If old wood is attacked, the damage is usually greater. As the nutrient content of wood decreases with age the larva has to consume larger amounts of wood. In Australia the infection of home construction is mainly caused by the use of wood already infected with the eggs or larvae of the beetles if the wood is not properly kiln dried in production.