Tiny world

Ash bark beetle

Hylesinus varius

A small, barrel-shaped beetle that carves a pattern of tunnels just under the bark.

Here it is following your pointer, drawn many times bigger than life. Find it at real size with the magnifying glass in the Tiny World.

Good to know

Three things about the bark beetle

The female chews a tunnel across the grain and lays her eggs along both sides of it.

Each grub then eats its own tunnel outwards, which makes the pattern you can see on bare wood.

The patterns are a bit like fingerprints. Different kinds of bark beetle make different shapes.

The real thing

Out and about

Look at fallen ash branches where the bark has dropped off, for a tunnel pattern like a centipede carved into the wood.

Lend a hand

Leave fallen branches and dead wood on the ground. Bark beetles begin the long job of breaking them down, and woodpeckers feed on them.

Keep going

Aphids