Red-blue poplar jewel beetle
| Red-blue poplar jewel beetle | ||||||||||||
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Red-blue poplar jewel beetle ( Agrilus pratensis ) |
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| Agrilus pratensis | ||||||||||||
| ( Ratzeburg , 1837) |
The red-blue poplar jewel beetle ( Agrilus pratensis ) is a beetle from the family of jewel beetles and the subfamily of Agrilinae . The beetle belongs to the large genus Agrilus , which is represented in Europe by over seventy species, which are mostly difficult to distinguish .
The species name pratensis (living in the meadow from the Latin prātum: meadow) is misleading, as the beetle is mainly found on poplars . The color combination red-blue, which is included in the German name, can only be observed in some of the individuals.
Characteristics of the beetle
The slim, pointed body is four to eight millimeters long. The beetle is inconspicuously dark and hairy and appears bald. Because of its two colors it belongs to the more easily identifiable species of the genus, and among the Central European species the species can only be confused with Agrilus auricollis and the females of Agrilus viridis typicus . The pronotum is golden to copper-red, the elytra are black with a green or blue metallic sheen. The color of the head can match the pronotum or the wing covers.
The head is short and inclined downwards perpendicular to the body axis. The top of the head is arched high. The large eyes protrude slightly. They almost reach the front edge of the pronotum. The eleven-part antennae are deflected in front of the eyes above the line connecting the lower eye rims.
The pronounced pronotum , with its double edging, is conspicuously depressed next to the side edge between the middle and the rear corner. A distinctly raised keel arises in every rear corner, whereas Agrilus auricollis has no keel.
The legs are delicate. The tarsi are all five-part.
biology
The larvae develop in damaged or recently dead twigs and branches of various poplar species , particularly the black poplar and aspen .
The beetles appear in Central Europe from May to August. The stenotopic species is to be found following the natural habitat of the host plant in floodplains and at forest edges mainly on the leaves of stick rashes.
distribution
The species is a Siberian fauna element that is distributed in various races from eastern Siberia west to France and which radiates into Spain in the subspecies meridionalis . Sweden and Finland are only reached in the south, the species is absent in the northern part of European Russia.
In Germany, the species is mainly found in the middle and south, avoiding higher altitudes. In Baden-Württemberg, the species rises up to eight hundred meters in heat-favored locations, and by far most of the finds come from heights between one hundred and two hundred meters.
literature
- Heinz Joy, Karl Wilhelm Harde, Gustav Adolf Lohse: The beetles of Central Europe . tape 6 : Diversicornia . Spectrum, Heidelberg 1979, ISBN 3-87263-027-X .
- Fritz Brechtel, Hans Kostenbader (ed.): The splendor and stag beetles of Baden-Württemberg . Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3526-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Agrilus pratensis in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved August 30, 2012
- ^ Agrilus at Fauna Europaea. Retrieved August 30, 2012
- ↑ Sigmund Schenkling: Explanation of the scientific beetle names (species)
- ↑ Klaus Koch : Die Käfer Mitteleuropas Ökologie . 1st edition. tape 2 . Goecke & Evers, Krefeld 1989, ISBN 3-87263-040-7 .
