Yellow-bound black beetle
| Yellow-bound black beetle | ||||||||||||
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Yellow-bound black beetle ( Diaperis boleti ) |
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| Diaperis boleti | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The black beetle ( Diaperis boleti ) is a species of the black beetle family (Tenebrionidae). It lives in and on the fruiting bodies of various tree fungus species , in Central Europe especially on the birch pore ( Piptoporus betulinus ) and the sulfur pore ( Laetiporus sulphureus ). It is particularly noticeable through its yellow to orange-colored drawing on the otherwise lacquer-black elytra .
features
Anatomy of the Imago
The black beetle reaches a body length of six to eight millimeters and has a body that is unusually high for the black beetle. The body is therefore relatively short and egg-shaped. The elytra have a conspicuous design consisting of two yellow to orange, jagged transverse bands. The front transverse ligament lies at the base, the rear one in the middle of the elytra, the latter is interrupted in the middle. Another yellow spot exists at the rear tip of the elytra. Otherwise, the elytres are lacquer black and bare and have several fine rows of dots with wide spaces between them. Completely black animals or individuals lacking the yellow spot at the end of the body appear as color varieties. The middle band can also be interrupted several times.
The head is semicircular and has a dented forehead. The antennae are clearly widened from the fourth antennae. The pronotum has clearly margined sides that are arched down and narrowed forward. The base of the pronotum is rounded and has no noticeable edge. The femur ("thigh" of the legs) is relatively short and especially the fore leg can be speckled or completely yellow, the tibia (splint) is simple. The phalanges ( tarsi ) have a distinct furrow on the back.
Anatomy of the larva
As with most black beetles , the larva of the yellow-banded black beetle is elongated and cylindrically round. The individual segments of the larva are flattened laterally, the last segment is broadly truncated at the back. The sclerotization of the chitin cuticle is only weakly developed, which means that the animals are soft and whitish in color. This is a typical feature of larvae that live in hard substrates such as wood or, in this case, mushroom fruit bodies. The surface of the body is smooth and has no noticeable thorns or bristles. The round stigmas on the front edge of the individual segments are striking .
There are two pinpoint eyes on each side of the larva’s head .
distribution and habitat
The yellow-black beetle is native to large parts of Central Europe. It lives as a mycetophagous (fungus-eating) beetle both as a larva and as an imago on and in the fruiting bodies of soft, mostly annual tree fungi . It can also be found less often on other mushrooms. It is described as stenotop (closely tied to certain habitats), particularly silvicol (tied to the forest) and polyporicol (tied to tree fungi).
Way of life
The yellow-eyed black beetle is directly dependent on mushrooms for food because it cannot use any other food. For this reason it is called the mycetobionte species. In this he resembles in its ecological claims in Central Europe, for example, the living also in tree mushroom fruit bodies black beetles Bolitophagus reticulatus ( monophag in tinder fungus ( Fomes fomentarius )) and Eledona agaricola (monophag in sulphureus). It feeds on the hyphae and the spores of the fungi both as a larva and as an adult animal . It is particularly common in mushroom fruit bodies that have already died and are rotting, whereby it prefers early to medium stages of rotting (oligo- to mesosaprobic). It has been proven in a wide range of different types of fungus, although the preferred species are the Sulfur Porling ( Laetiporus sulphureus ) and the Birch Porling ( Piptoporus betulinus ).
The wintering takes place in dry dead wood , especially in rot-rotten beech wood, whereby the animals also gather in larger aggregations of up to 30 animals. Occasionally they can also be found in dry fruiting bodies from the previous season. The beetles go to winter quarters after the first few nights with night frost , so there are hardly any animals in the fruiting bodies in late autumn.
Larval development
The eggs are laid from May onwards, with the females pricking the eggs with their ovipositor into the upper side of the fruiting bodies. There are probably one to two generations within a year, depending on the weather and the availability of the mushroom fruiting bodies. Under optimal conditions, the first generation of larvae will mature in July and the second in September. The larvae grow within the brood fungi, where they feed on the trama of the fungus like adults . This is also where pupation occurs, whereby the larvae eat their nest holes and stick the entrance with mushroom meal. The nesting cavities in which pupation takes place are avoided by other larvae in the same fungus and eaten around at some distance, creating spherical pupae cradles . It is obvious that the avoidance of eating is due to chemical substances that are released into the fungal tissue of the doll's cradle wall, or to acoustic signals from the doll - so far there have been no studies on this.
Taxonomy
The first scientific description of the species was made by Carl von Linné in his 10th edition of the Systema naturae from 1758 under the name Chrysomela boleti . So he classified the species in the leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae). The genus Diaperis was first described by Étienne Louis Geoffroy in his work Histoire abrégée des insectes qui se trouvent aux environs de Paris in 1762
Ecological and economic importance, hazard
The yellow-bonded black beetle is a saprobiont that promotes the breakdown of dead fungal fruit bodies both as a larva and as an imago. Since it is a relatively large beetle compared to other common mycetobiont species and it usually lives in high numbers in the fungi in which it is found, its role in the breakdown of the mushroom mass is quite high. Because of its defensive glands, it has no known predators.
Since the yellow-black beetle does not colonize any commercially used fungi and, with a few exceptions such as the sulfur porling, is not found in edible mushrooms , it does not have any economic harmful effects.
The species is not listed as an endangered species on the Red Lists . It is to be found frequently and regularly in the entire distribution area, especially in heavily fungus-infested commercial forests.
swell
literature
- L. Bennick: Mushroom beetles and beetle mushrooms: Ecological and statistical studies. Acta Zoologica Fennica 70, 1952; 1-250.
- R. Conrad: Comments on the mushroom beetle species Diaperis boleti (L.) (Col., Tenebrionidae). Entomological News and Reports 37, 1993; 51-53
- K. Graser: Observations on the way of life of Diaperis boleti (L.) (Col., Tenebrionidae). Entomological News and Reports 37; 136-137
- H. Harde, KW Freude, GA Lohse: The beetles of Central Europe. Goecke & Evers Verlag Krefeld 1961
- Koch: The beetles of Central Europe - ecology. Goecke & Evers Verlag Krefeld 1989; Page 339
- K. Klausnitzer: The larvae of the beetles of Central Europe. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena 1996
- I. Nuss: On the ecology of the Porlinge. Investigations into the sporulation of some porlings and the species of beetles found on them. J. Cramer, Vaduz 1975
- HJ Raschka: Life communities in the fruiting bodies of tree-colonizing Basidiomycetes with special consideration of mycetobiont tenebrionids (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae). Diploma thesis at the Free University of Berlin, February 2002
- Edmund Reitter: Fauna Germanica. The beetles of the German Empire. 3rd volume, KG Lutz, Stuttgart 1911
Individual evidence
- ^ Description of the anatomy after Edmund Reitter 1911 and Harde et al. 1961
- ↑ Description of Larvalanatomie according Klausnitzer 1996
- ↑ a b c Koch 1989
- ↑ nut 1976 Bennick 1952, Koch 1989
- ↑ Graser 1993
- ↑ a b Raschka 2002
- ↑ Conrad 1993 Bennick 1952
- ^ Carl von Linné: Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. 10th ed. 1758
- ↑ Étienne Louis Geoffroy: Histoire abrégée des insectes qui se trouvent aux environs de Paris; dans laquelle ces animaux sont rangés suivant un ordre méthodique. Paris 1762
- ↑ cf. Fauna Europaea , AnimalBase
