Big roe deer
| Big roe deer | ||||||||||||
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Big roe deer |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Platycerus caprea | ||||||||||||
| ( de Geer , 1774) |
The Great Roe Deer ( Platycerus caprea ) is a beetle from the Schröter family . Besides the small roe deer ( P. caraboides ), the species is the only representative of its genus in Central Europe.
features
The beetles reach a length of 13 to 15 millimeters and have a very shiny, mostly metallic green to blue colored body. As with the little roe deer, this color is very variable, which makes it very difficult to distinguish the two species. The body of this species is slightly larger and less stocky than that of the little roe deer. In addition, the posterior angles of the pronotum are blunt in the large roe deer and the puncture of the pronotum on the sides is interrupted by smooth, calloused areas, in the small roe deer, however, the posterior angles are rectangular and the dots are denser and more even.
Occurrence
The species is distributed from Central Europe to Western Asia. In the north, the distribution extends to the Baltic Sea and southern Sweden. Accordingly, it is absent on the British Isles and the main part of Scandinavia, south of the Pyrenees and on the North Sea coast from western France to Denmark as well as in Greece and in large parts of the Balkans. The beetle prefers mountainous, cool and humid locations (montane distribution) and is therefore found especially in deciduous forests, preferably mixed beech forests, in high low mountain ranges and high mountain ranges up to 2000 m altitude. Evidence in the Vogelsberg only began from an altitude of 500 m, in lower elevations only the small roe deer was detected.
The species is rare in Central Europe, it is not classified in the Red List of Threatened Species in Germany, but is listed as "critically endangered" (Category 2) and "critically endangered" (Category 1) in individual federal states.
Way of life
The larvae develop mainly in rotten dead wood from various deciduous trees, also in tree stumps and lying pieces of wood and in wooden stakes. The spectrum of proven food crops includes beech , birch , alder , bird cherry , oak , sycamore maple and fir . In addition, the species is often associated with the Birkenporling ( Piptoporus betulinus ) and other fungi. It takes three years to develop and pupation takes place in the wood.
swell
Individual evidence
literature
- Karl Wilhelm Harde and Frantisek Severa: The Kosmos Käferführer: The Central European Beetles. Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-440-05862-X .
- Bernhard Klausnitzer, Eva Sprecher-Uebersax: The stag beetles. 4th, revised edition, Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei Volume 551; Westarp Sciences, Hohenwarsleben 2008, ISBN 978-3-89432-451-3 .