Lophyra flexuosa
| Lophyra flexuosa | ||||||||||||
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Lophyra flexuosa from southern France |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Lophyra flexuosa | ||||||||||||
| ( Fabricius , 1787) |
Lophyra flexuosa is a beetle from the family of ground beetles and the subfamily of tiger beetles . Three subspecies have been describedfor Europe,but their status is controversial.
Characteristics of the beetle
The beetle reaches a length of eleven to fourteen millimeters. It is shiny blue-green on the underside and coppery to greenish-bronze colored with whitish markings on the top.
The large upper jaws have three long, pointed teeth on the inside. In the case of the lower jaws , the outer drawer is designed as a further jaw button, the inner drawer ends in an inwardly curved, hook-like tip. The eyes are large and prominent, and when measured above the eyes, the head is wider than the pronotum. The eleven-part antennae are turned in front of the eyes. From the fifth link onwards they appear matt due to hairiness. A feature to differentiate it from other European tiger beetles is a tuft of hair on the fourth antennae of the male, the so-called penicillum . The upper lip is covered with numerous bristles that are not arranged in a row, but are offset.
The variable pattern of the wing covers consists of an unusually large number of yellowish-white spots of various shapes (blemishes), which are narrowly bordered with a shiny blue to olive green. As with many tiger beetles, the drawing on each wing cover includes a flaw around the shoulder, the shape of which is reminiscent of a telephone receiver (humeral flaw), a similarly shaped flaw at the end of the wing cover (apical flaw) and a transverse band running behind the middle. In Lophyra flexuosa, this bends almost vertically backwards halfway along its length, but then again approaches the suture of the wing cover in an arc shape . The front part of the apical blemishes is detached and forms its own rounded spot. In addition, there is a smaller oval flaw at the base of the wing cover next to the label , a teardrop-shaped mark behind the label and an elongated flaw along the wing cover seam approximately in the middle of the wing cover. The latter flaw can also be missing, the flaws next to the label are a feature of the genus.
The long, slender legs with five-limbed tarsi enable quick running over short distances.
Characteristics of the larva
The larvae resemble the larvae of the genus Cicindela with the upper jaws shifted upwards and three well-developed pairs of legs and hooks on the back of the fifth abdominal segment, which enable rapid movement in the vertical living tubes. In the second and third larval stages, they can be distinguished from other genera by numerous bristles on the pronotum, some of which are flattened and split, as well as some brownish-looking, heavily sclerotized areas on the abdomen. The three larval stages differ in size, the proportions of length and width of the individual body parts, the proportions of the body parts to one another and in the number of bristles on the individual body parts. The number of bristles on the first member of the galea provides an important orientation for all species of the genus and similar genera . In the first larval stage this base member has one bristle, in the second larval stage two and in the last larval stage three bristles. In measurements on ten specimens from North Africa, the head width in the last larval stage averaged 2.96 millimeters, the width of the pronotum 2.89 millimeters. In the second larval stage, the head width averaged 1.87 millimeters, the width of the pronotum 1.76 millimeters. In the first larval stage, the values were 1.20 millimeters for the head width and 1.21 millimeters for the width of the pronotum.
To differentiate the species from other species of the genus Lophyra , the third larval stage is best. In the third larval stage of Lophyra flexuosa , the antennae are not yellow-brown as in Lophyra neclecta , but dark brown. The first antenna element has six to seven bristles, the second eight to ten. On the lower jaw , the jaw palpation, galea and stipes are about the same length. The bristles of the head are mostly long and thin.
On pronotum are at Lophyra flexuosa third instar significantly fewer bristles than Lophyra brevicollis , seventy are in the on each side of pronotum about bristles. In Lophyra flexuosa , on the other hand, there are only 35 to 45 per side, eight to sixteen next to the central seam and eight to nine on the side behind the head. The bristles are long and thin, they are partially forked on the disc and in front of the pronotum.
The back plate (tergite) of the third abdominal segment in Lophyra flexuosa has 16 to 22 bristles in the last larval stage and thus significantly more than Lophyridia candida with 11 to 13 bristles. Two middle and two inner hooks sit symmetrically on the fifth abdominal segment. The chitin plates on the 5th abdominal segment are large but clearly separated from each other. The middle hook with two to four bristles is 3.5 times longer than the inner hook and reaches the middle of the previous tergite . The inner hook has a clearly separated, central spine, three to four bristle hairs that are almost three times as long as the inner hook and up to three thin bristles on the front. In the previous larval stages, the number of bristles is more limited.
biology
The diurnal beetle can be found on sandy beaches, on dunes near the coast and on sandy to gravel banks along rivers. It prefers moist soils near dunes, such as brackish lakes. It tolerates salty soils, but does not depend on them.
There are three larval stages. The larva lives in self-dug tubes that reach a depth of 13 to 32 cm. Usually, however, the tubes are less than 20 cm deep, with the water table at 18 to 40 cm below the surface. Larva and imago predatorily live on small invertebrates .
distribution
The species is widespread on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea ( North Africa , Spain , southern France, Sicily , Balearic Islands ) and is also found in Switzerland , but is absent in the northeastern Mediterranean region. There are isolated occurrences in the Nile Delta and in Israel . There are also reports of finds from the Atlantic coast: From Normandy to the south via Spain and Portugal to the African Atlantic coast of Morocco . The distribution area extends along the rivers inland, even into the mountains. Within Europe, the nominate form is only found on the mainland, in Sicily the subspecies Lophyra flexuosa circumflexa and in Sardinia the subspecies Lophyra flexuosa sardea .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Lophyra flexuosa in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved December 19, 2011
- ↑ a b Vittorio Aliquò: A proposito della Lophyra flexuosa Fabr. In Sicilia (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae). Naturalista sicil., Pp. IV, V (3-4), 1981: pp. 67-72 as PDF
- ↑ a b Arved Lompe after Reitter, Ganglbauer, Brandmayr, Trautner a. a .: European beetle identification tables
- ↑ Cesare Lacovone. “Italian Tiger beetles” YES (Publications of the Young Entomologists Society) Vol.1 No 4 Fall 1984 PDF ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2014 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.
- ^ A b Erik Arndt, Alexander V. Putchkov: “Description of larvae of the tiger beetle genera Lophyra , Habrodera and Neolaphyra (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae) from Africa” Eur.J.Entomol. 91: 407-418, 1994 ISSN 1210-5759 PDF
- ↑ a b J. HIDALGO ', M. BALLESTA', F. RUANO 'YA. TINAUT: “DISTRIBUCION DE LOS CICINDELIDOS EN UN AMBIENTE DUNAR. PUNTA ENTINAS-EL SABINAR. (ALMERIA, ESPAÑA). (COLEOPTERA: CICINDELlDAE) “Ecología No 9: pp. 269–474 PDF
- ↑ Juan José López-Pérez: Corología de los cicindélidos del litoral onubense, Andalucía, Suroeste español (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae). Boletín de la SAE No 16 (2009) 7-20 ISSN: pp. 1578–1666 as PDF
- ↑ Lophyra flexuosa circumflexa in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved December 20, 2011
- ↑ Lophyra flexuosa sardea in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved December 20, 2011
