Bittacus hageni

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Bittacus hageni
Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Beak fly (Mecoptera)
Family : Exemplary mosquito (Bittacidae)
Genre : Bittacus
Type : Bittacus hageni
Scientific name
Bittacus hageni
Brewer , 1860

Bittacus hageni is one of the two species of the mosquito family(Bittacidae)native to Central Europe. The predatory species is widespread in Europe, but very rare everywhere.

features

Bittacus hageni reaches a body length of about 20 millimeters ( forewing length 17 to 20 millimeters) and is delicately built with long legs. Its habitus is reminiscent of a Schnake (Diptera, Tipulidae family). As is typical of the beaked flies, the mouthparts are drawn out into a greatly elongated, long "beak" on the underside of the head. The animals are quite uniformly colored light ocher yellow. The elongated abdomen is clearly widened towards the tip from the fourth (in the male from the fifth) segment. The wings are also tinted yellow ocher with yellow to yellow-brown longitudinal veins . In the middle of the forewings a row of cross veins is strikingly darkly tinted, the following ones also appear darkened by a gray border. Bittacus hageni can be distinguished from the second European species Bittacus italicus by the lighter color of the trunk and the lack of black thorns on the hips . In addition, the wing mark is smaller and less sharply outlined. A reliable identification of the species is mainly possible on the basis of the male mating organs.

Way of life

When resting, the species clings to plants with its long forelegs and lets the body hang down vertically. In flight it catches insects, especially mosquito species, with its long legs with long spurs at the end of the tibia . According to some observations, it is said to tear spiders from their webs even in flight. The species rests during the day and is crepuscular and nocturnal. Especially heat-favored forest edges are given as sites.

Mosquitos should simply drop their eggs one by one on the ground without special brood care. The larvae live on the forest floor on the soil surface. Little is known about the larval stage of the species. Other species of the genus accepted animal foods as well as softer vegetable foods in the laboratory.

distribution

The genus Bittacus comprises 124 species, of which only two occur in Europe, of which Bittacus hageni is the far rarer. The few finds are spread over large parts of Europe. The type locality is the Waschberg near Stockerau , Austria; it was also found by the first describer in the same year in the Vienna Prater . In the more than 100 years that followed, no second proof was successful. Evidence is available from France, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. In Germany, the species is currently, after more than 100 years without evidence, only proven with one find north of the Harz Mountains in 2003.

swell

  • Friedrich Brauer (1860): Bittacus hageni, a new European species, described and compared with the related species. Negotiations of the KK Zoological-Botanical Society Vienna. 1860. 10: 691-696 + Plate XII.
  • Erich Kleinsteuber, Wieland Röhricht: Mecoptera - Schnabelfliegen. In: Stresemann; Excursion fauna of Germany. Spectrum Academic Publishing 2011.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Łukasz Przbylowic (2006): Bittacus hageni Brauer, 1860 (Mecoptera: Bittacidae) - new to the fauna of Poland, with some remarks on Polish specimen of Bittacus italicus (OV Müller, 1766). Polskie Pismo Entomologiczne 75: 333-337.
  2. ↑ a b A. Kaltenbach: 28. Mecoptera (Schnabelbare, Schnabelfliegen). In: JG Helcke, A. Starck, G. Wermuth (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Zoologie. IV. Volume, Arthropoda, 2nd half Insecta. 2nd part, 25th delivery. Walter de Gruyter Verlag, 2nd edition 1978.
  3. ^ Johann Gepp: The Mecoptera of Carinthia with remarks on vocalizations by Bittacus italicus (Müller). In: Carinthia II. 172./92. Year, Klagenfurt 1982, pp. 341-350 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  4. ^ Johannes Gepp: Red List of Mecoptera (Schnabelfliegen) Austria. In: Klaus P. Zulka: Red Lists of Endangered Animals Austria's Böhlau Verlag 2005. ISBN 3205773454
  5. ↑ Evelyne Carrières-Kam & Philippe Jeitz (2007): Bittacus hageni Brauer, 1860: une nouvelle observation en Lorraine (Insecta, Mecoptera, Bittacidae). Bulletin de la Société des naturalistes luxembourgeois 108: 43-44.
  6. ^ Dusan Devetak (1991): The genus Bittacus Latr. (Bittacidae, Mecoptera) in Yugoslavia and Albania. Journal of the Working Group of Austrian Entomologists 43 (1/2): 51-54.
  7. ↑ K. Tajovsky & P., Lauterer (1986): Contribution to the knowledge of the genus Bittacus Latreille, 1802 (Mecoptera, Bittacidae) in Czechoslovakia. Acta Musei Moravia Sci. Nat. 71: 189-193.
  8. ↑ University of Göttingen: Prof. Dr. Rainer Willmann
  9. ↑ Wieland Röhricht (2004): Red list of beak flies (Mecoptera) of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. 2nd version, status February 2004. Reports of the State Office for Environmental Protection Saxony-Anhalt 39: 387.