Little roe deer
| Little roe deer | ||||||||||||
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Little Roe Deer ( Platycerus caraboides, male ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Platycerus caraboides | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The Little Roe Deer ( Platycerus caraboides ) is a beetle from the Schröter family . Along with the large roe deer ( P. caprea ), the species is the only representative of its genus in Central Europe.
features
The beetles are 9 to 13 millimeters long and have a flat and compact build. They are very similar to the great roe deer ( Platycerus caprea ). In contrast to this, they are built somewhat shorter and more compact, the pronotum is dense and evenly punctured and the throat next to the edge of the pronotum does not disappear at the rear corners. The color varies between metallic green or blue. The feelers have a four-part fan at the end. In the males, the greatly enlarged mandibles are conspicuous and they have black legs and undersides, unlike the females, in which these body parts are colored rusty brown.
Occurrence
The species is found from central Europe and northern southern Europe to western Asia and the Middle East. It is absent in southern Spain as well as in the north of the British Isles and the northern part of Scandinavia, as well as in Greece and in large parts of the Balkans. The beetle prefers medium and level locations and is found mainly in warm deciduous forests, preferably mixed beech forests, as well as on clear-cuts and on dry, bushy slopes up to 750 m in height.
The species is relatively rare in Central Europe, it is not classified in the Red List of Threatened Species in Germany, but is listed as "endangered" (category 3) and "severely endangered" (category 2) in individual federal states.
Way of life
The beetles eat leaves and buds from deciduous trees and lick sap from tree wounds. The larvae develop mainly in the white-rotten dead wood of various deciduous trees, especially in fungus-covered and lying pieces of wood and in wooden path borders. Beech , linden , oak , birch , hornbeam , ash , pine , sloe and hawthorn belong to the spectrum of proven food plants . 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 .
