Little sandpiper
| Little sandpiper | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Little sandpiper ( Elaphrus riparius ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Elaphrus riparius | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The sandpiper ( Elaphrus riparius ) is a beetle from the family of ground beetles (Carabidae).
features
The beetles are 5.5 to 7 millimeters long. Their body has a bronze-green basic color, the tarsi are metallic light green. The deck wings carry four rows of purple colored pits. Between the first and second third of the wing covers there is a mirror field at the wing cover seam . Seen from below, the prothorax is hairy white.
Occurrence
The animals are found in Europe from northern Spain to Scandinavia . They are missing in the extreme south. To the east it is distributed across Asia Minor , the Caucasus and Central Asia to Kamchatka . They live in humid areas, especially on the edge of muddy waters in areas with little vegetation, but also on meadows and in alluvial forests , from the plains to around 1,000 meters above sea level. They are the most common species of their genus in Central Europe .
Way of life
The adults feed on small insects and their larvae . When in danger, they stridulate with their wings. The newly hatched beetles hibernate, like most ground beetles, buried in the ground.
literature
- Helgard Reichholf-Riehm: Insects. Mosaik, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-570-01187-9 (Steinbach's natural guide 7)
- Ekkehard Wachmann , Ralph Platen, Dieter Barndt: Ground beetles. Observation, way of life. Naturbuch, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-894-40125-7
- Jiři Zahradnik, Irmgard Jung, Dieter Jung, Jarmila Hoberlandtova, Ivan Zpevak: Beetles of Central and Northwestern Europe , Parey Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-490-27118-1
