Shiny flower beetle
| Shiny flower beetle | ||||||||||||
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Image 1: Shiny flower beetle. male |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Anthaxia nitidula | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The shiny flower beetle ( Anthaxia nitidula ) is a beetle from the family of the jewel beetles (Buprestidae). It becomes about five to seven millimeters long. As with many Anthaxia species (e.g. Anthaxia senicula ), the coloring is different in males and females. In the male, the head, pronotum and elytra are completely green or the elytra-colored to the rear. In the females, the head and pronotum are gold-green, brass-colored or purple-red, the elytra are completely blue-green. The body is parallel and flat (picture 2).
Characteristics of the beetle
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| At sight | Side view |
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| Fig. 3: Front view | Fig. 4: underside |
The head is much broader than it is long and drawn back into the pronotum to the rear of the large eyes. The eyes cover the sides of the head and are approximated on the forehead (image 3). The antennae are short, bluntly serrated and eleven-jointed. The upper lip is bilobed. The upper jaws are strong, curved and pointed. They have a blunt tooth on the inside. The jaws are long, the end link spindle-shaped and truncated. The last link of the lip button is also elongated and truncated. The forehead is not long and it is densely hairy.
The elytra are flat and uneven and, seen from above, usually cover the abdomen. They are without stripes or rows of dots, but densely dotted. In the front two-thirds, their side edges run parallel, they narrow towards the tip. The bent-down side strips of the wing covers (epipleurs) are furrowed (epipleural folds). This furrow disappears before the elytra are individually rounded.
The pronotum is almost rectangular, wider than it is long, strongly narrowed towards the back and without a central band of contrasting color. It has a reticulate or honeycomb pattern. In a broad central stripe, the raised areas running parallel to the base are more strongly developed than the network lines running in other directions, so that in this area the pronotum appears wrinkled or ribbed across. The front edge of the pronotum is indented towards the front in the middle, indented to the right and left of it towards the rear (clearly double-indented, Figure 1). The rear edge of the pronotum is almost straight. It is not hollowed out in the side corners of the base. The label is small and triangular.
The front hip cavities, in which the front legs are turned, are open to the rear. The front hips are spherical and separated by a broad extension of the front chest. This extension ends in a point that bridges the mid-breast and thus apparently divides it (Fig. 4). The rear hips lie broadly against the rear chest and are hollowed out towards the rear to partially accommodate the rear thighs. The tarsi are all five-limbed, the claws imperforate.
Occurrence
The beetles are quite widespread in southern and central Europe and also colonize North Africa, Asia Minor and the Caucasus, although they mainly occur in warmer regions. They inhabit forests and bushes.
Way of life
The larvae live under the bark of sloes and fruit trees. They pupate after a few years. The finished beetle hatches from the pupa . In Germany , the glossy flower beetle is a protected species .
nutrition
The diurnal animals fly around in search of food. They feed on wild rose flowers , on which several of the small animals often sit. They are also often found on flowering shrubs and yellow- blooming meadow flowers. They also eat wood .
literature
- Fritz Brechtel, Hans Kostenbader (ed.): The splendor and stag beetles of Baden-Württemberg . Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3526-4 .
- Jiři Zahradnik, Irmgard Jung, Dieter Jung, Jarmila Hoberlandtova, Ivan Zpevak: Beetles of Central and Northwestern Europe . Parey Verlag, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-490-27118-1 .
- H. Joy, KW Harde, GA Lohse: Die Käfer Mitteleuropas, Vol. 6 . Spectrum Academic Publishing House in Elsevier, Munich 1966, ISBN 3-8274-0683-8 .
- Gustav Jäger (Ed.): CG Calwer 's Käferbuch . K. Thienemanns, Stuttgart 1876.
