Euops chinensis
| Euops chinensis | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Euops chinensis | ||||||||||||
| Voss , 1922 |
Euops chinensis is a species of beetle from the leaf roller family(Attelabidae).
features
The beetle is approx. 4 millimeters long and mostly shiny metallic green or blue in color with a yellowish head and metallic blue wing-coverts . Occasionally the elytra are also purple (forma purpureus ). Two purple longitudinal lines are formed on the pronotum . The body is relatively short with wide wing-coverts, the width of which is greatest at the base and which are narrowed straight back. The pronotum is rounded on the sides and much narrower than the elytra. He wears a bifurcated puncture, i.e. H. the points consist of larger point pits with a central elevation in them, but they are not wrinkled into one another. There are strikingly large complex eyes on the head , but in this species they do not touch on the upper side, as is the case with some relatives. The trunk is slightly longer than the head and widened towards the tip with relatively short antennae . As with all Euops species, the labial palps are completely absent . The front legs are very elongated, especially in the male. The front rails ( tibia ) of the male are extremely long and curved like a sickle.
Way of life
The only food plant is Japanese knotweed ( Fallopia japonica ). Euops chinensis is monophagous and could not be bred in the food selection experiment on other tested knotweed plants and was never observed on them in the field either. As is typical with leaf rollers, the female of the species rolls a leaf of the food plant into a cigar-shaped roll and covers it with an egg. The larva develops inside the role. It depends on a type of fungus, Penicillium herquei , for its nutrition , which grows on the wilting leaf substance. The fungus is applied by the female along with the egg. Only the female of the species has special spore-carrying pockets (called: Mycangia) in which fungal spores are stored and transported. The possession of Mycangia is otherwise only in wood-destroying beetle species such as. B. known to the bark beetles and is not known of any other leaf eater.
distribution
The species lives exclusively in southern China (Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan Island).
meaning
The food plant is a feared invasive neophyte in Europe and North America . It is therefore examined to introduce the beetle for biological control of the plant species, which has almost no biological antagonists in Europe. Before this is possible, however, the potential role of the symbiotic fungus must first be clarified.
swell
- Yoshihisa Sawada & Katsura Morimoto (1985): A revision of the genus Euops Schoenherr (Coleoptera: Attelabidae) from Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Journal of the Faculty of Agriculture Kyushu University 30 (2/3): 175-195.
- Eduard Voss (1922): New weevils from different parts of the world (9th contribution to the knowledge of the Curculioniden). German Entomological Journal 1922: 166-174.
- Yangzhou Wang, Kai Wu, Jianqing Ding (2010): Host specificity of Euops chinesis, a potential biological control agent of Fallopia japonica, an invasive plant in Europe and North America. BioControl Volume 55, Number 4: 551-559, doi : 10.1007 / s10526-010-9279-9 .
- Xiaoqiong Li, Wenfeng Guo, Jianqing Ding (2012): Mycangial fungus benefits the development of a leaf-rolling weevil, Euops chinesis. Journal of Insect Physiology Volume 58, Issue 6: 867-873. doi : 10.1016 / j.jinsphys.2012.03.011 .
- VV Grebennikov & RAB Leschen (2010): External exoskeletal cavities in Coleoptera and their possible mycangial functions. Entomological Science, 13: 81-98. doi : 10.1111 / j.1479-8298.2009.00351.x