Epicauta rufidorsum

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Epicauta rufidorsum
Epicauta rufidorsum, female

Epicauta rufidorsum , female

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Beetle (Coleoptera)
Family : Meloidae (oil beetle)
Genre : Epicauta
Type : Epicauta rufidorsum
Scientific name
Epicauta rufidorsum
( Johann August Ephraim Goeze , 1777)
Fig. 1: Top view, male
Fig. 2: Section of the underside

Epicauta rufidorsum is a beetle from the family of blister beetles . The genus Epicauta is represented in Europe with four species . The species Epicauta rufidorsum can occur as a pest in mass occurrences. The incidence of the inappropriately named beetle is limited to southern Europe and southern central Europe. In Poland the beetle is counted among the endangered species.

Note on names and synonyms

The generic name Epicauta appears for the first time in a Dejean catalog of the beetles in his collection, but is not explained there. According to Schenkling , he is from old Gr. επίκαυτός (epikautós) derived for burnt at the tip and alludes to the fact that in the eponymous species the dark elytra with the exception of the tip are densely lightly haired, so the tip of the wing cover appears blackened. However, this does not apply to the species Epicauta rufidorsum .

Before that, the beetle was placed in different genera. In the Fauna Europaea 7 synonyms are given.

  • Meloe rufidorsum Goeze 1777
  • Meloe algiricus Sulzer 1776
  • Lytta marginata Dorthes 1787
  • Cantharis dubia Olivier 1790
  • Lytta erythrocephala Rossi 1790
  • Lytta rufa Gmelin 1790
  • Lytta verticalis Illiger 1803

Because of the striking red head of the black beetle, the species name erythrocephalus, a (from ancient Greek ερυθρος erythrós for red and κεφαλή kephalē for head) is obvious. The species has also been called that by various authors, for example in connection with a correct description by Rossi . Rossi does not understand his description as a first description, but gives Fabricius , Pallas , and Scopoli as sources . He takes over the last two sources from Fabricius. In Scopoli, Fabricius and Rossi wrongly quote the species no. 81 dorso rufo ( Latin with red back) instead of the species no. 82 capite rufo (Latin with red head). Illiger and other authors also point out that the species Meloe erythrocephalus in Pallas and the species Meloe capite rufo from Scopoli are different species of beetles. The number 82 from Scopoli (with the red head) describes the same species as Rossi, but Scopoli does not yet use the binary nomenclature . Pallas, on the other hand, describes another beetle from Russia. Illiger renames our species and gives it the name verticalis . This means marked by the vertex (from the Latin vertex for vertex), and indicates the very characteristic black line on the vertex of the red head, which is present in our beetle, but absent in the species described by Pallas.

Likewise problematic is the description as Meloe algiricus by Sulzer . The description and illustration agree with the Beetle described below, but Sulzer does not understand his description as the first description either, but gives Linneus 11 as the source . Both in the 11th as well as in the 10th edition of Linnés Systema naturae , however, a beetle with brown elytra (lat. Elytris testaceis ) from Algeria is described under Meloe algiricus . Algiricus stands for from Algeria , and Epicauta rufidorsum has neither brown elytra , nor does the species occur in North Africa.

Also Lytta marginata , Lydus marginatus , Lytta Marginea , Lydus margineus (from Latin. Margo for margin) typically refers to a different type, which is characterized by a red border of the elytra. In 1787, Nur Dorthes describes our beetle as Lytta marginata and incorrectly cites Litta marginata from Fabricius, a species that is also bordered gray, but has a different distribution area. Dorthes meant by the edge of the narrow strip of light gray hair on elytra outer edge ( fr Les Bordes exterieurement étuis sont de gris blanchâtre) and notes that the beetle after Linné as Meloe after Geoffroy as Cantharis must be placed.

Olivier describes the species in a French encyclopedia in 1790 under the name Cantharis dubia with the number 14 (from Latin dubius for doubtful, uncertain), but among the numerous synonyms incorrectly lists the Siberian beetle from Pallas and lists it under no. 13 Cantharis erythrocephala with the synonym Lytta erythrocephala .

The description of the beetle by Gmelin as Lytta rufa (from Latin rufus for red) 1790 in the 13th edition of the Systema naturae is very brief. Like Fabricius, Gmelin gives Scopoli as the source, but not like Fabricius there the number 81 with the red back, but correctly number 82 with the red head. At Scopoli, the description together with the location where it was found is sufficient to identify our species.

One can only explain with these frequent wrong references that the species is now named with the inappropriate name rufidorsum after the wrong description by Goeze in 1777. Rufidorsum is derived from the Latin rufus for red and dorsum for back, the description of Goeze contains the phrase dorso rufo (Latin with a red back) and Goeze gives the beetle the German name "Wiener Rothrücken". Goeze lists the species under No. 17 of the genus Meloe and refers to No. 81 by Scopoli. Goeze lists the type erythrocephalus under No. 18 , calls it in German the "Scopolian fox head" and refers to No. 82 from Scopoli, the beetle treated here.

Description of the beetle

The beetle is ten to nineteen millimeters long. The body is elongated, especially in the male. With the exception of the head, it is matt black.

The head is large and arched and loosely covered with short black hair. It is red, but has a longitudinal groove on the vertex, which lies in a longitudinal stripe colored black. The temples behind the eyes are long, much longer than the eyes. The eleven-jointed antennae are hardly thicker in the male than in the female, the two penultimate members are pointed at the end. The antennae are black, only the inside of the base links are yellow-red.

The pronotum is narrower than the head, its sides are parallel in the rear half. A longitudinal groove runs in the middle of the pronotum, some of which can be hairy in light gray.

The elytra are fine and granulated like rasp. They are barely wider than the head at the shoulders. Towards the rear they become evenly slightly wider, the ends are individually rounded. The wing covers leave the end of the abdomen uncovered. The elytra are thinly haired with black, the edge of the elytra and occasionally the sutures of the elytra are narrowly white-gray with light hair (clearly visible in the taxo picture).

The legs are long. The tarsi of the hind legs are four-limbed, the tarsi of the front and middle legs are five-limbed. In the males, the first limb of the anterior tarsi is dilated and flat. In all species of the genus, the fore legs have an elongated, smooth recess at the base of the inside, in which the splint comes to rest when the legs are drawn up. The recess is tightly torqued at the end remote from the rail. All of the tarsi are longer than the rails. The claws are smooth inside.

The underside is usually covered with fine gray hairs; on the abdomen, only the rear edges of the segments are usually covered with dense gray hairs (Fig. 2).

biology

The occurrence of the species is limited to dry locations. The beetle can be found in meadows and pastures on slopes, on fields and forest edges as well as clearings from the coast up to heights of a thousand meters. Furthermore, vineyards, quarries and light oak forests are mentioned as possible sites. The beetles are often found sociable. They eat herbaceous plants from different plant families and can also be harmful in crops (potatoes, alfalfa, sugar beet, ...).

After mating, the females lay several dozen eggs in their own burrows in the summer months. The very agile Triungulinus larvae break free from these after a few weeks . These look for the oothecae of various grasshopper species ( Italian beautiful hoppers , Moroccan migratory locusts , ...) and penetrate them. They feed on the locust eggs. They shed their skin several times and change their shape considerably. Hibernation takes place in the 6th larval stage as immobile larvae. In the following spring, another larval stage and pupation follow. The adult beetles can be found between May and August.

The damage to crops is offset by the limitation in the frequency of some species of locusts. Overall, the species is usually so rare that it is more in need of protection. Control should be limited as much as possible.

It is reported from Hungary that during a mass invasion of the rose star in 1995 in the Hortobágy the birds mainly fed on the beetle Epicauta rufidorsum until the end of June , which was also present in abundance during this period. After that the birds ate mainly grasshoppers again.

distribution

The species is mainly found in southern and south-eastern Europe (southern France , Italy , Switzerland , Austria , the former Czechoslovakia and the former Yugoslavia , Albania , Bulgaria , Hungary to Greece ). In Poland they are only found in the south. The beetle is missing from the Iberian Peninsula . Often it occurs only in locally very limited populations.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Epicauta rufidorsum at Fauna Europaea , accessed on June 21, 2018
  2. ↑ Ex or Ex in Poland?
  3. ^ Dejean: Catalog des Coléoptères de la Collection de M. Le Comte Dejean Paris 1833 Deuxième édition; Livraison 1 (pp. 1-96), Livraison 2 (pp. 97-176) Paris: Méquignon-Marvis Père et Fils; Livraison 3 (pp. 177–256) was published in 1834; Livraison 4 (pp. 257-360) in 1835; Livraison 5 (pp. 361-442) Méquignon-Marvis, Paris in 1836; P. 224
  4. ^ Sigmund Schenkling: Nomenclator coleopterologicus 2nd edition, Jena 1922
  5. ↑ a b c Johann August Ephraim Goeze: Entomological contributions to the knight Linne 'twelfth edition of the first part of the nature system Leipzig 1777 p. 704
  6. ↑ Petrus Rossius: Fauna Etrusca… 1st volume, Libornum ( Livorno ) 1790 p. 239 Lytta erythrocephala
  7. ↑ a b Joh. Chr. Fabricius: Species insectorum… Volume 1, Hamburg and Kiel 1781 p. 329, No. 8 erythrocephala , No. 5 marginata
  8. ↑ Petrus Simon Pallas: Journey through different provinces of the Russian Empire 1st part, Frankfurt and Leipzig 1776 Appendix page 14 No. 46 Meloe erythrocephalus
  9. ↑ Petrus Simon Pallas: Icones insectorum praesertim Rossiae Sibiriaeque peculiarium… Erlangen 1781 Figure 29a, 29b, text is missing in this digital edition and text from another digitization of the same publication
  10. ↑ Jon. Ant. Scopoli: Annus V Historico-naturalis Lipsiae (Leipzig) 1772 p. 103: 103, No. 81 dorso rufo , No. 82. capite rufo
  11. ^ A b Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger : Additions, corrections and comments to Fabricii Systema Eleutheratorum Tomus II in Magazin für Insektenkunde 3rd volume, Braunschweig 1804 p. 172 no. 21
  12. ^ Georg Wolfgang Franz Panzer: Critical revision of the insect fauna of Germany 1st volume, Nuremberg 1805 p. 94 Lytta erythrocephala
  13. ↑ a b Sigmund Schenkling: Explanation of the scientific beetle names (species)
  14. ↑ Dr. Sulzer's abbreviated history of the insects according to the Linaeic system 1. Part Winterthur 1776 Description p. 66 Fig. 12: The Algirer and illustration panel VII Fig. 12
  15. ↑ Carolus Linnaeus: Systema Naturae .... 1st volume, part 2, 11th edition, Leipzig 1762 p. 420, no. 6 Meloe algiricus
  16. ↑ Carolus Linnaeus: Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis 1st volume, 10th edition, Stockholm 1758 p. 424: 420 No. 6 Meloe algirica
  17. ↑ E. Mulsant, Cl. Ray: Coup-d'oeil sur les insectes de la famille des Cantharidiens, accompagné de la déscription de diverse espèces nouvelles ou peu connues in Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des scienses, belles-lettres et arts de Lyon - classe des scienses Vol. 8, Lyon- Paris 1858 p. 134 Lydos marginatus , p. 173 Synonym Lytta dubia
  18. ↑ Dorthes: Oberservations sur quelques insectes qui nuisent au blé et à la luzerne in Mémoires de la Société d'Agriculture de Paris Trimestre de printemps 1787 p. 61 ff Description in French p. 70, illustration Page 71 two pages further back Fig. 9 and 10, description of the illustration with name p. 71
  19. ↑ E. Mulsant, Histoire naturelle des coléoptères de France - Vésicants (Volume 10) Paris, 1857 Epicauta in the Google book search
  20. ↑ Guillaume-Antoine Olivier: Histoire naturelle - Insectes 5th volume, in Encyplopedie métodique Paris 1790 page 279, No. 14 in the Google book search
  21. ^ Carolus Linnaeus, Johann Friedrich Gmelin: Systema Naturae .... 1st volume, part 4 13th edition, Leipzig 1788 p. 2016 No. 26 Lytta rufa
  22. ^ CJ Schönherr: Synonymia insectorum or attempt at a synonymy of all previously known insects according to Fabricii Systema Eleutheratum etc., 1st volume 3rd part, Upsala 1817 Synonyms for eurythyrea , synonyms for sibirica , synonyms for verticalis Illig.
  23. ↑ Category at coleo-net
  24. ↑ Pietro Zandigiacomo, Marco Zlatich: Epicauta rufidorsum, un Meloide diinterest naturalistico dannoso alla patata in provincia di Trieste Zandigiacomo / publication / 273787943 Epicauta rufidorsum un Meloide diinterest naturalistico dannoso alla patac4 / left-10th district-bautacf26 / provincia-625-24 / provincia-Trieste 550 un-Meloide-di-interest-naturalistico-dannoso-alla-patata-in-provincia-di-Trieste.pdf
  25. ↑ Kovács Gábor: Adatok a pástormadár (Strunus roseus) 1995-ös hortobágyi inváziójáról in Aquila - Anales Instituti Ornithologici Hungarici 1995 p. 227ff, p. 229 Epicauda rufidorsum as a food basis
  26. ↑ distribution map of Epicauta rufidorsum in Poland

Web links

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