Fermenting-bait-traps
Guides
Purpuricenus
Purplescent Longhorn Beetles
Purpuricenus is a genus of longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) comprising approximately 50 species distributed across the Northern Hemisphere. North American species are large, showy beetles with velvety black bodies and vivid red or orange basal elytral markings. The genus has been extensively studied due to its attractiveness to fermenting bait traps, a collecting method that has revealed cryptic species diversity and clarified host associations. The 2000 revision by MacRae resolved taxonomic confusion in eastern North America by distinguishing P. paraxillaris from the similar P. axillaris based on morphological and ecological differences.