[2] Euplatypus parallelus is native to Central and South America, but has spread invasively to Africa, tropical southern Asia, Wallacea and New Guinea, probably via timber imports.

It arrived in Africa in the late 1800s and was first recorded in Asia after World War II, became widespread in Sri Lanka in the 1970s and was present in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia by the 1980s.

It soon became the most significant ambrosia beetle in Thailand, attacking both living trees, typically stressed or diseased specimens, and recently fallen or cut timber.

[4] The male beetle excavates a short tunnel in the bark of the host tree or log and then releases a pheromone on the surface which attracts a female.

[2] The beetles sometimes introduce pathogenic fungi into the tree and have been implicated in transmitting Fusarium, the cause of a wilt disease, in southern Asia.