Moon spotted beetle
| Moon spotted beetle | ||||||||||||
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Moon spot beetle ( Callistus lunatus ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Callistus lunatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Fabricius , 1775) |
The moon spot beetle or just moon spot ( Callistus lunatus ) is a beetle from the family of ground beetles (Carabidae). It is the only species of the genus Callistus in Europe.
features
The beetles reach a body length of 4.2 to 7 millimeters and have a conspicuous and unmistakable body color. The head is greenish-blue in color and finely dotted, the pronotum is solid orange and the wings are yellow-orange to orange. There are three dominant pairs of black spots on the wings. The first pair is adjacent to the base of the pronotum and is the smallest, the last pair is united to form a wide transverse band. Between this and the middle pair of spots, the wings are colored yellow on the sides. The antennae are dark, but the first two links are orange. The legs are dark, but the rails (tibiae) are also orange. The body of the animals is hairy close-fitting.
Occurrence and way of life
The diurnal animals occur from southern and south-eastern Central Europe east to Iran. They are extremely warmth-loving and colonize dry sandy and limestone soils, dry grasslands , quarries and heaths . In the Balkans and Caucasus , however, they can also be found on muddy banks. Otherwise they are missing in the mountains. You can find them under stones or between moss. Occasionally one meets them together with bombardier beetles of the genus Brachinus .
literature
- Jiři Zahradnik, Irmgard Jung, Dieter Jung et al .: Beetles of Central and Northwestern Europe. Parey, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-490-27118-1
- Ekkehard Wachmann , Ralph Platen, Dieter Barndt: Ground beetle - observation, way of life , Naturbuch-Verlag Augsburg, 1995, ISBN 3-894-40125-7
Web links
- Collection of the St. Petersburg Zoological Institute (English)
- Fauna Europaea: Taxonomy (English)