Poplar splendor beetle
| Poplar splendor beetle | ||||||||||||
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Poplar splendor beetle ( Agrilus ater ) on poplar bark, wing slightly unfolded |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Agrilus ater | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1767) |
| Pictures of the poplar splendor beetle | |
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| Image 1: top | |
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| Photo 2: front view | |
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| Image 3: Side view, colored orange below : double side edge of the pronotum ocher: keel at the posterior angle of the pronotum green: the rear hip widened on the outside |
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| Photo 4: underside | |
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| Image 5: Underside detail, colored green on the right : Front end of the front breast (chin process) ocher: Prosternal process blue: Middle breast red: Rear breast |
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The poplar borer ( Agrilus ater ) is a beetle from the family of jewel beetles (Buprestidae). To distinguish it from the red-blue poplar jewel beetle , it is also called the spotted poplar jewel beetle . The slim, dark metallic beetle is easy to recognize by the three white spots on each wing cover. It is between six and eleven millimeters long.
Like almost all jewel beetle species, the poplar jewel beetle is specially protected by law in accordance with the Federal Species Protection Ordinance . The species is listed in the Red List of Endangered Species in Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia under Category 2 (endangered). In Brandenburg it is considered threatened with extinction . In Rhineland-Palatinate it is listed as an extremely rare species . In Saxony-Anhalt it belongs to the category extinct or lost .
Taxonomy and Etymology
The poplar splendor beetle was first described in 1767 by Linnaeus under the scientific name of Buprestis ater . The short description contains the phrase: corpore atro enlongato ( Latin for black elongated body). This explains the species name āter (Latin black).
The genus Agrilus was established by the Englishman Curtis in 1825. He takes the name from Megerle . The explanation of the generic name Agrīlus is uncertain. Schenkling provides his explanation (from ancient Greek άγρα ágra, hunting, prey, and είλω ēīlo, to gather) with a question mark. A reference to properties of the species of the genus is not discernible.
The genus Agrilus is represented in Europe with over seventy species. Worldwide there are 36 subgenera with about three thousand species.
Characteristics of the beetle
The head of the poplar splendor beetle is short, twice as wide as it is long when viewed from above. The upper lip is rectangular. The upper jaws are strong, curved, pointed, cut out on the inner side with a blunt tooth. The jaw palpation has four limbs, the first limb is very small, the second long and the last thickened. The lip button end link is large and club-shaped. The eleven-limbed antennae are short, cut inwards from the fourth limb and deflected at about the level of the lower edge of the eyes (Fig. 2). The eyes cover almost the entire side of the head, their rear edge runs parallel and at a small distance from the front edge of the pronotum. The vertical expansion is much larger than the horizontal (picture 2, picture 3).
The pronotum is much wider than it is long and slightly rounded on the sides. As a characteristic of the species , it has a double side border. The distance between the actual lateral edge and the keel-like elevation running underneath is very small near the base of the pronotum and increases towards the front (image 3 below, orange). As with most species of the genus, there is a keel-like elevation above the side edge at the rear corners of the pronotum (picture 3 below, ocher). The pronotum is deeply outlined in front of each wing cover, and shallow in front of the shield . The label is triangular, tapering at the back and has a clear transverse keel.
The front breast is slightly bent up and edged towards the front, (chin extension), the front edge is only slightly edged (picture 5, green). The extension of the front chest towards the rear (Prosternal process, picture 4 ocher) tapers at an acute angle towards the rear. It covers the middle breast so that it appears to be divided (Fig. 5).
The tarsi of the legs are all five-limbed, the first four tarsi are lobed. The first link of the hind tarsi is longer than the following three combined. The claws each have a tooth at the base, which is blunt and wide in the female and long and pointed in the male, which makes the claws appear split. The rear hips are greatly expanded on the outside (picture 3 below, green).
The first two of the five visible belly rings ( sternites ) are fused together. The abdomen is widest at about the level of the adhesions, after which it tapers uniformly. The fifth sternite is rounded at the back (Fig. 4).
The elytra are narrow and laterally leave part of the abdomen uncovered. At the front they are a little wider than the pronotum, after which they are only slightly outlined inward. In the last third, they narrow evenly. Their rear end is serrated and drawn out in a point. The wing covers are depressed on the inside next to the shoulder bump. In the back third they have near the seam where the wing covers meet, an elongated patch of white hairs. A second pair of white elongated spots are farther apart at about the level of the middle of the elytra. A third spot of indefinite shape is in the impressions on the base of the wing. Light hair spots can also be found on the outside of the rear hip, outside on the third to fifth sternite (picture 4) and on the sides of the abdomen ( pleurite ), except on the second and mostly on the fifth (in picture 3, the hair spots can be found above the sternites of the abdomen easily misinterpreted as exposure effects).
Occurrence
The beetles are found all over Europe except the northwest. They develop in the wood of willows and poplars . The adults can also be found on these trees, in Central Europe in June and July.
literature
- Heinz Joy, Karl Wilhelm Harde, Gustav Adolf Lohse: The beetles of Central Europe . tape 6 : Diversicornia . Spectrum, Heidelberg 1979, ISBN 3-87263-027-X .
- Fritz Brechtel, Hans Kostenbader (ed.): The splendor and stag beetles of Baden-Württemberg . Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3526-4 .
- Klaus Koch : The Beetles of Central Europe Ecology . 1st edition. tape 2 . Goecke & Evers, Krefeld 1989, ISBN 3-87263-040-7 , pp. 101 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Fritz Brechtel, Hans Kostenbader (ed.): The splendor and stag beetles of Baden-Württemberg . Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3526-4 .
- ↑ Red lists at BioNetworkX
- ↑ C. Linnaeus: 1767: Systema naturæ, Tom. I. Pars II. Editio duodecima reformata first description page 663 no.26
- ↑ Sigmund Schenkling: Nomenclator coleopterologus 2nd edition Jena 1922 Explanation of the scientific beetle names (species) in short form
- ↑ John Curtis: British Entomology ... The Genera of Insects ... Vol. II Coleoptera Part II, London 1823-1840 Description of the genus Agrilus in text on Plate [50 corresponds to plate 67]
- ↑ Sigmund Schenkling: Nomenclator coleopterologus 2nd edition Jena 1922 Explanation of the scientific beetle names (genus) in short form
- ^ Agrilus at Fauna Europaea. Retrieved March 23, 2013
- ↑ Genus Agrilus at BioLib
