Lixus spartii
| Lixus spartii | ||||||||||||
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Lixus spartii |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Lixus spartii | ||||||||||||
| Olivier , 1807 |
Lixus spartii or Lixoglyptus spartii is a beetle of the genus Lixus and the subgenus Lixoglyptus . For this weevil , which is native to southern Europe, the German name gorse stem weevil was suggested. You can find the inconspicuous animal on gorse ( Genista ) and goat clover ( Cytisus ).
Body features
The body is 9 to 16 millimeters long, elongated and appears brownish with light stripes. The chitin armor is thick and very robust.
The head is elongated into a trunk with the mouthparts at the end. The trunk is moderately long, slightly curved and thicker than the strong thighs (femora). It reaches about half the length of the pronotum in the male and about two thirds of the length of the females . The dots are coarse and somewhat wrinkled; the dots are not very dense and irregular. At the top, the trunk is indented in the form of a central furrow, otherwise it is petalled. The deflection point of the antennae is in the front third of the trunk. An antenna furrow arches down from it and ends in front of the eyes on the underside of the trunk. The antennae are kneeled, the shaft is significantly shorter than the flagellum. This consists of seven limbs, the last one is close to the three-limbed club. The forehead is only slightly wider than the trunk. The eyes are oval and not very prominent. Their lower edge reaches about the level of the underside of the trunk.
The label is tiny. The elytra are somewhat narrower than the pronotum. Their sides run almost parallel and are only extremely weakly expanded in the middle. They are divided into eight roughly equally wide intervals by parallel point strips. The intervals are granulated, the granulation becomes stronger and denser towards the base, while the points of the dotted lines become indistinct. In the end, the elytra are not divergent and pointed, as is the case with many other species of the genus Lixus , but each is individually rounded: only because of the hairiness can they appear somewhat pointed. At the base, too, the elytra are individually rounded, flat, with more or less distinct basal impressions, whereby the base of the third interval is emphasized. The elytra are drawn with more or less distinct longitudinal ligaments and a sharply separated lateral ligament. These are caused by the fact that the white hair is either fine and short so that the dark color of the chitin of the wing cover shines through - or the hair is thicker and thickened like scales, so that the dark basic color is covered. The light areas predominate, the dark stripes are on the wing cover seam and on the fifth and eighth space between the dot stripes. The stripes of the elytra continue on the pronotum. This is wider than it is long and widens slightly conically towards the rear. It is not pressed flat on the sides. Above, the front edge is drawn a little forward and at the level of the eyes the pronotum is rounded to the front (eye lobes). The center line is slightly deepened. A central keel can be indicated and two white hair bands can appear on either side of the central line. The underside is densely hairy with whitish hairs with bald spots (bald spots). Five sternites are visible. The thighs are imperforate, the tarsi four-limbed. The claws are not grown together at the base (free).
Way of life
The beetles develop in the roots of gorse and a few other species.
distribution
In addition to North Africa, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, Sweden is also given as a distribution area.
swell
- Karl Petri: Determination table of the species of the genus Lixus Fab that became known to me. from Europe and neighboring areas, 2nd continuation . Wiener Entomologische Zeitung XIV. Volume 3 and 4, April 10, 1905, pp. 101–116 as PDF www.biologiezentrum.at
credentials
- ↑ Catalog of German names for weevils ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Lixus (Lixoglyptus) spartii Olivier, 1807 . Fauna Europaea. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
