Common pea beetle

Common pea beetle
Common pea beetle ( Bruchus pisorum )
Systematics
Order : Beetle (Coleoptera) Subordination : Polyphaga Family : Leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae) Subfamily : Seed beetle (Bruchinae) Genre : Bruchus Type : Common pea beetle
Scientific name
Bruchus pisorum
( Linnaeus , 1758)

The common pea beetle ( Bruchus pisorum ) is a species from the leaf beetle family (Chrysomelidae).

features

Common pea beetles are only about five millimeters long. The top is densely hairy and shows a pattern of brown, gray and white spots. This pattern varies from animal to animal. The body is oval shaped and built rather squat. The end of the abdomen , on which two black spots can be seen, protrudes from under the elytra . The first four antennae are red-brown, the rest are black. On the front legs, both the rails and the feet are reddish brown; on the middle legs the splints are red-brown at the top. The hind legs are black. There is one tooth on each of the hind legs, while there are two roughly equal-sized teeth on the tips of the rear rails (see similar types).

Similar species

• Bruchus lentis Frölich , 1799. Front and middle rails are red-brown.
• Bruchus affinis Frölich , 1799. One tooth at the tip of the posterior splint is significantly larger. The markings on the elytra mainly consist of white hairs.

Synonyms

• Bruchus pisi Linnaeus , 1767
• Bruchus cruciger Geoffroy

Occurrence

The beetles are found almost everywhere in the world. They inhabit pea fields and are also found in stored pea stocks.

Way of life

The adult animals do not eat any food. Only the females eat the pollen from pea flowers after mating so that the eggs develop better. When the time comes, the female lays up to 100 eggs on young pea pods within a few weeks. The larvae eat into a pea each and later pupate in this too. This can cause significant crop damage. The beetles hatch in autumn. In areas with winter frost, the beetle overwinters in the pea. That is why the animals are also found in storage facilities, but do not cause any damage there, as the beetle waits for spring to fly to a pea field.

credentials

1. ↑ Bruchus pisorum (Linnaeus 1758). Fauna Europaea, Version 1.3, April 19, 2007 , accessed on July 9, 2007 . 
2. ↑ Jiři Zahradník, Irmgard Jung, Dieter Jung et al .: Käfer Central and Northwest Europe , Parey Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-490-27118-1

Web links

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