Compsocerus violaceus

Compsocerus violaceus · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Cerambycidae

Damages trees, gardens or crops. It damages cultivated trees and other woody plants.

Source: Wikipedia

Compsocerus violaceus
Photo: Alan demian benadia, CC BY

Compsocerus violaceus is a long-horn beetle found in southern Brazil, northern Argentina and Uruguay. Adults feed on fruits, flowers and tree sap, while larvae tunnel under bark and eat the wood, harming the host trees. The larvae develop for about ten months before emerging as adults, and the species is considered an agricultural pest of cultivated trees.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Compsocerus violaceus belongs to the beetle family Cerambycidae.

Source: Wikipedia

Is it a pest in the house?

It is regarded as an agricultural pest that attacks several cultivated tree species.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

It lives in South America, especially in southern Brazil, northern Argentina and Uruguay.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Adults eat fruits, flowers and sap that leaks from injured tree trunks. Larvae make galleries under bark in branches 2 to 6 cm wide and feed on the wood.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

After hatching, larvae tunnel under bark and feed on wood for about ten months before becoming adults.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its native range is southern Brazil, northern Argentina and Uruguay in South America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 1 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Washington.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

More photos

Questions people ask

What plants does Compsocerus violaceus damage?

Its larvae tunnel into and feed on the wood of cultivated trees, harming the host plants.

Source: Wikipedia

Where is Compsocerus violaceus found?

It occurs in southern Brazil, northern Argentina and Uruguay in South America.

Source: Wikipedia

What do adult beetles eat?

Adults feed on fruits, flowers and sap from injured tree trunks.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Cerambycidae)

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compsocerus_violaceus

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.