Monochamus carolinensis
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Monochamus carolinensis, the Carolina pine sawyer, is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae. It was described by Guillaume-Antoine Olivier in 1792. It is known from Canada and the United States. The species resembles Monochamus titillator, distinguished by the having the apical margin of the elytra at a shallower angle to the elytral midline, and by the shape of the adjacent tiny tip of the elytra, which is typically more rounded in M. carolinensis than M. titillator. The male antennae are shorter relative to the body in M. carolinensis than in M. titillator, being about twice the body length in males of the former species. The larval stages may be difficult to distinguish.
Zhao et al. reported trapping M. carolinensis in Beijing, China in 2022. Monochamus carolinensis adults are active from May through at least September in the southeastern United States, with 1 to 1.5 generations per year reported in North Carolina's Piedmont. Females oviposit on dead, either standing or felled, pine trees, laying one to three eggs per niche excavated between outer bark and phloem. Examples of host species include Pinus banksiana, Pinus sylvestris and Pinus echinata. Adult beetles fly to feed on twigs of live pine trees; this is important due to the beetle's potential role as a vector of pine wilt disease. Nematodes in their late larval stage enter into the tracheal pores of the teneral adult beetle and crawl off the posterior end of the beetle into chewed wood during feeding or, more commonly, during oviposition. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Carolina Pine Sawyer sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 7 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 513th most-seen of the 822 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May to July
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Carolina Pine Sawyer in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August to April, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Carolina Pine Sawyer sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in our data
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Carolina Pine Sawyer sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Carolina Pine Sawyer is recorded against all the insects logged in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (7 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
