Macrolenes dentipes
| Macrolenes dentipes | ||||||||||||
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Macrolenes dentipes , male |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Macrolenes dentipes | ||||||||||||
| ( Olivier , 1808) |
Macrolenes dentipes is a beetle from the family of the beetle and the subfamily of cryptocephalinae (Cryptocephalinae).
Characteristics of the beetle
The elongated oval beetles are 5–8 mm long. The head and thorax are orange while the abdomen is black. The head is only orange below the antenna base. The species exhibits a sexual dimorphism . The pronotum of the females is widest near the base and tapers towards the front. In the males, the pronotum is more rounded, it reaches its maximum width at about half its length. The males have elongated front legs. Their anterior femora are widened and have a pointed, forward-facing tooth near the apical end. The femora and tibia of both sexes have a dark rear edge and an orange colored inside. The tarsi are black. The antennae are orange at the base and darken towards the ends. The elytra are orange in color and have a shoulder spot near the base and a spot about two thirds in length. Depending on the sex and the variety, the stains are different and may be absent.
There are two varieties:
- Macrolenes dentipes var. Humeralis Vitale - spots on the elytra only hinted at
- Macrolenes dentipes var. Transversa Depoli - clear, large-area spots on the elytra ; the rear spots in the females almost merge into a transverse ligament
Similar species
- Macrolenes bellieri - different leg color
- Tibutoea macropus - different leg color; no greatly enlarged anterior femora in males
distribution
Macrolenes dentipes has a holomediterranean distribution area. The occurrence ranges from the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Middle East . The species occurs along the northern and southern Mediterranean coasts as well as on several Mediterranean islands such as the Balearic Islands , Sicily and the Greek islands including Crete .
Way of life
The beetles are particularly observed in June and July. The females lay their eggs in larger packages (20 eggs or more) on the leaves and stems of their host plants. These include the mastic shrub ( Pistacia lentiscus ) and the seaweed species Ephedra fragilis . The eggs are barrel-shaped and brown. Occasionally, the beetles appear in large numbers, which results in the defoliation of some host plants. Often we observe jewel wasps of the family Trichogrammatidae as Bloodiella andalusiaca , at the rear end of the elytra of females who are about to lay eggs. The wood wasps are egg parasitoids . Similar to many other representatives of the fall beetle, the beetle species has a bond with ants ( myrmecophilia ). The beetles are often seen near ant nests.
etymology
The specific epithet dentipes is derived from Latin and refers to the male anterior femora provided with a tooth.
Synonyms
The following synonyms can be found in the literature :
- Clytra dentipes Olivier , 1808: 857 - original name combination
- Cryptocephalus bimaculatus Rossi , 1790: 91 nec Fabricius , 1781: 141
- Cryptocephalus ruficollis Fabricius , 1792: 61 nec Fabricius , 1775: 109
- Macrolenes ruficollis ( Fabricius , 1792)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Lech Borowiec: Macrolenes dentipes (Olivier, 1808) . University of Wroclaw, Department of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Taxonomy. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
- ↑ a b Macrolenes dentipes . www.biolib.cz. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
- ↑ a b c Macrolenes dentipes in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved July 15, 2020
- ↑ a b Federico Alejandro Agrain et al .: Leaf beetles are ant-nest beetles: the curious life of the juvenile stages of case-bearers (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Cryptocephalinae) . ZooKeys 547: 133-164.