6-8mm long. Chocolate brown, mottled with patches of short yellowish hairs on thorax and wing cases which have no pits. Thorax hooded over head. Emergence holes approximately 3mm diameter, tunnels random orientation, mainly in the direction of the grain. The bore dust is cream or biscuit coloured with disc or bun shaped pellets and gritty when rubbed between fingers. They are almost always confined to hardwoods especially oak. The wood must be partially decayed by fungus.