Black wire-haired sniper beetle
| Black wire-haired sniper beetle | ||||||||||||
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Black wire- haired sniper beetle Hemicrepidius niger |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hemicrepidius niger | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The black wire- haired snail beetle ( Hemicrepidius niger ) is a species of the click beetle family .
Black wire-haired snipers grow to be approx. 10 to 14 mm long. They are slim and have simple antennae that are about half the length of the body. The rear edge of the front breast has no cutout. Both the shield and the elytra are glossy black. The claws are not toothed. As is typical for the subfamily Athoinae, the hairiness of the pronotum is directed forward.
The beetles are widespread in Central and Northern Europe , they are also found in the Caucasus and East Asia . They live mainly in deciduous forests and meadow valleys in the foothills and are often found on flowers there.
In late spring, the first black wire-haired sniper beetles emerge from the ground where they have overwintered . They mate in midsummer, and as a diurnal animal they can also be observed during courtship and mating on flowers. The eggs are laid in the top soil layers. The brownish or red-yellow larvae live and shed their skin here several times until autumn before they build a pupa cradle in which they pupate and hibernate.
The larvae of click beetles are called wireworms . Those of the black wire-haired sniper beetle eat roots.
Until 1979 the scientific name was Athous niger .
literature
- Helgard Reichholf-Riehm: Insects with appendix arachnids . The colored nature guides, Mosaik Verlag, Munich 1983.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article in The Canadian Entomologist by Edward C. Becker ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
