Segeberger cave beetle
| Segeberger cave beetle | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Choleva lederiana | ||||||||||||
| Reitter , 1901 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the subspecies | ||||||||||||
| Choleva lederiana holsatica | ||||||||||||
| Benick & Ihssen , 1937 |
The Segeberger cave beetle ( Choleva lederiana holsatica ) is a beetle from the Leiodidae family , which is only endemic to northern Germany .
features
The beetle is about 5 millimeters long and colored uniformly dark brown. It is very similar to the common species Choleva agilis , which is found mainly in the burrows of voles and moles. As with all related species, the head is abruptly narrowed immediately behind the eyes to a narrow part of the neck that is drawn into the prothorax . The head shield is separated from the forehead by a transverse seam. The entire surface is fine, but clearly dotted, not transversely grooved, the elytra are hairy close-fitting. The antennae and legs are relatively long and slender. The pronotum is narrower than the elytra and widest behind the middle. The species is distinguishable from the closely related species in the males by the position of a tooth on the posterior trochanters , in the females at the tip of the elytra , which are drawn out inside (in the suture angle) to a sharp tooth.
Occurrence
The beetle only lives in the Kalkberg cave of Bad Segeberg in Schleswig-Holstein , the northernmost natural cave in Germany, at a year-round constant temperature of between 8 and 9 ° C and a humidity of almost 100%. He flees from light (negative phototaxis ). The beetles run quickly and with great agility, but although they have fully developed hind wings, they have never been seen in flight.
It feeds on the excrement and carcasses of bats . The beetle reaches its greatest population density during the hibernation of the bats, of which around 22,000 animals hibernate in the Segeberger Höhle. After the end of the hibernation of the bats and their escape from the cave at the end of March, the cave beetles enter a resting phase until the beginning of July. In mid-July, the cave beetles mate and the females lay the relatively small number of 30 eggs. When the first bats return at the end of August, the beetle larvae hatch and pupate after a few weeks. The beetles hatch from mid-November, after which around 15,000 beetles live in the cave, which have no predators here. It is believed that the Segeberg cave beetles developed into their own isolated subspecies over a period of around 10,000 years . The offspring under laboratory conditions has not yet been successful.
Systematics
The species is of Benick and Ihssen as a separate species Choleva holsatica described been and later as a subspecies of Choleva septentrionis filed until this kind in 2003 by Ruzicka and Vavra with the previously described Choleva lederiana synonymised was. A whole range of similar and related species live in caves and rock dumps in the mountains of Europe. A closely related and very similar form was described by Ipsen and Tolasch in 1997 from the hollow stone cave in the Teutoburg Forest as Choleva septentrionis sokolowskii .
swell
- Charlotte Heun (1955): Biology and ecology of Choleva holsatica Ihss. & Ben. Entomological messages from the Zoological State Institute and Zoological Museum Hamburg 7: 197–227.
- Jan Ruzicka & Mid Vavra (2003): A revision of the Choleva agilis species group. In Systematis of Coleoptera: Papers celebrating the retirement of Ivan Lobl. Memoires on Entomology 17: 141-255.
- M. Schilthuizen (1990): A revision of Choleva agilis (Illiger, 1798) and related species (Coleoptera: Staphylinoidea: Cholevidae). Zoological Mededelingen Leiden 64 (10): 121-153.
- Anne Ipsen & Till Tolasch (1997): Choleva septentrionis sokolowskii n. Ssp., A new cavernicole subspecies of Choleva septentrionis Jeannel from Central Europe (Col., Cholevidae). Entomological News and Reports 41 (3): 167-171.
- Genus Choleva Latr. in: European Beetles, Table of Determinations, by Arved Lompe