This native Palaearctic species is generally common throughout Europe from North Africa to Southern Scandinavia and the U.K. and from Portugal east through Asia Minor, Israel, Syria and Northern Iran to the far east of Russia and Japan, and following introductions it has also become established in the United States and Canada where it is widespread in temperate latitudes. Here it is generally common across England and Wales north to Nottingham and there are scattered records further north to the Scottish borders. The typical habitat is broadleaf and mixed woodland, parkland and gardens with plenty of damaged and fallen timber and logs but the beetles are rarely seen as they are crepuscular and nocturnal, often coming to light or sap runs on trunks. Adults tend to be very active and will run rapidly or fly readily when captured or exposed from under bark etc. during the day. They are active from May to July or later, depending on the year, and may be found under bark in the pupal chamber earlier in the year. Hosts include various broadleaved trees e.g. Fagus, Prunus, Fraxinus, Salix and Castanea but Quercus seems to be preferred and they have also been recorded from several conifer genera e.g. Tsuga and Picea (both Pinaceae). Small and pale eggs, about a millimetre long, are laid under bark or in crevices of standing or fallen timber or logs and the larvae initially tunnel beneath the bark leaving galleries densely packed with frass, in large infestations the bark may become loose with dense masses of galleries beneath. Larger larvae bore into the xylem and produce surface galleries, they may measure 18mm when fully grown, and pupation occurs in the spring; a pupal cell is constructed beneath the bark in the outer xylem and adults eclose after about 3 weeks but remain in the cell until April or May when they emerge through circular holes bored through the bark. In southern European latitudes the life cycle is complete within a year but further north it is generally completed over three years. They have formerly been pests of considerable economic importance as the sapwood of oak trunks and branches may be completely destroyed, effectively ‘ringing’ the tree and causing its death.