Hungarian jewel beetle
| Hungarian jewel beetle | ||||||||||||
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Hungarian jewel beetle |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Anthaxia hungarica | ||||||||||||
| ( Scopoli , 1772) |
The Hungarian jewel beetle ( Anthaxia hungarica ) is a beetle from the jewel beetle family (Buprestidae). With a length of seven to fifteen millimeters, it is the largest Central European species of the genus Anthaxia . Males and females look different.
Like most jewel beetles, the species is specially protected by law in accordance with the Federal Species Protection Ordinance. The species is not in any red list. At Brechtel it is listed as "imported" for Germany.
Comments on the name and system
The species was first described by Scopoli in 1772 under the name Mordella hungarica . The brief diagnosis is followed by the comment Circa Schemnitzium capta ( Latin: caught near Schemnitz). Schemnitz (Selmecbánya) was then a Hungarian mining town. This explains the species name hungārica (Latin in Hungary, Hungāria, occurring), as well as the German name. Contrary to what its name suggests, the beetle is not only native to Hungary, but also to large parts of Europe, North Africa and Asia.
The assignment of the species to the genus Mordella by Scopoli was soon corrected to the assignment to the genus Buprestis . This genus was divided into many genres by Eschscholtz in 1829. The genus Anthaxia belongs to the genera with a pointed label .
The genus name Anthaxia is from Altgr. άνθος ánthos, "blossom", and άξιος áxios, "worth" derived and indicates the most colorful species of this genus. The genus Anthaxia is represented in Europe in four subgenera with over a hundred species. There are over thirteen hundred species worldwide.
Characteristics of the beetle
| Pictures of the Hungarian jewel beetle | |
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| Photo 1: male | Photo 2: females |
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| Photo 3: head | |
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Image 6: Chest section from the lower right side partially colored red: front hip; green: Prosternal process; blue: mid-breast; yellow: rear breast; orange: hind hip |
| Figure 4: side view | |
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| Photo 5: bottom | Fig. 7: Inside of the metatibia ♂ |
The males and females differ in their coloration and in their construction ( sexual dimorphism ). The males (picture 1) are uniformly green with mostly two darker longitudinal stripes on the pronotum . Their hind legs are clearly thickened and the antennae are wider than those of the females. In the females (picture 2) the head, pronotum and underside are brass-colored, red or purple, the elytra are blue. The two dark vertical stripes on the pronotum are separated by a greenish shimmering stripe. There are also color variants. In addition, the place of insertion and the degree of expansion of the antennae is different in males and females.
Anthaxia hungarica belongs to the subgenus Cratomerus and is therefore also called Cratomerus hungarica . The body shape is more elongated and cylindrical than that of species of the subgenus Anthaxia (Fig. 4). The elytra are widest at the shoulders, behind them slightly indented inwards, so that the sides of the abdomen are visible when viewed from above.
The head is drawn back into the pronotum to the rear of the large eyes. The eyes almost completely cover the sides of the head (picture 4). The forehead is sparse and hairy for a long time ( pubescent ). The eleven-segment antennae are strong and flattened, and the antennae-segments are enlarged on both sides. The upper lip ( labrum ) is bilobed. The upper jaws ( mandibles ) are strong, curved and pointed. They have a blunt tooth on the inside. The jaws are long, the end link spindle-shaped and truncated. The last link of the lip button is also elongated and truncated.
The pronotum is wrinkled transversely in the middle, reticulated at the edges without a central grain in the mesh. Its sides are only slightly rounded and slightly narrowed towards the rear. The pronotum is more arched than in the species of the subgenus Anthaxia . Its base is just cut off. Its sides, like the forehead and legs, are long, light and woolly hairy.
The elytra are as wide at the base as the pronotum, behind it they narrow a little, whereby they are slightly bulged inwards. In the last third they narrow evenly. At the back they are individually rounded and serrated. The label is triangular.
The underside of the body (Fig. 5) shows the features that are important for the systematic classification. The front hip cavities, in which the front legs are turned, are open to the rear. The front hips (Fig. 6, right red) are spherical and separated by a broad extension of the front breast (Prosternal process, Fig. 6, right green). This process widens at the end of the anterior hip cavity and then ends in a point that bridges the mid-breast and thus apparently divides it (Fig. 6, blue on the right). The rear hips lie broadly against the rear chest and are hollowed out towards the rear to partially accommodate the rear thighs ( thigh covers , image 6 right orange). The tarsi are all five-limbed, the claws imperforate.
Occurrence and way of life
The warmth-loving species can be found almost exclusively on steppe heath. It occurs in southern Europe, eastern Europe and southern central Europe. It is also found in North Africa, and is widespread in Asia. In Central Europe, the beetles are only found in places and rarely to very rarely from April to July, but mainly in May and June. The beetles then fly to the edge of the forest. The males often visit yellow flowers, the females less often.
The larvae develop in two to three years in thicker dying branches and trunks of oaks, mainly of downy oaks ( Quercus pubescens ).
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 .
- Gustav Jäger (Ed.): CG Calwer 's Käferbuch . 3. Edition. K. Thienemanns, Stuttgart 1876.
- Klaus Koch : The Beetles of Central Europe Ecology . 1st edition. tape 2 . Goecke & Evers, Krefeld 1989, ISBN 3-87263-040-7 . P. 95.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Fritz Brechtel, Hans Kostenbader (ed.): The splendor and stag beetles of Baden-Württemberg. Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3526-4 .
- ↑ Red lists at BioNetworkX
- ↑ JA Scopoli: Annvs V. Historico-naturalis. I. Emendationes et additamenta ad Ann. I. II. III. IV. Leipzig 1772 first description p. 104.
- ↑ Sigmund Schenkling: Nomenclator coleopterologus 2nd edition. Jena 1922 Explanation of the scientific beetle names (species) in short form
- ↑ Johann-Friedrich Eschscholtz: Zoological Atlas…. 1st issue. Berlin 1829 Division of Buprestis p. 8.
- ↑ Sigmund Schenkling: Nomenclator coleopterologus 2nd edition. Jena 1922 Explanation of the scientific beetle names (genus) in short form
- ↑ Anthaxia at Fauna Europaea. Retrieved March 23, 2013 Anthaxia Anthaxia (subgenus) from Fauna Europaea. Retrieved March 23, 2013 Anthaxia Cratomerus (subgenus) from Fauna Europaea. Retrieved March 23, 2013 Anthaxia Melanthaxia (subgenus) from Fauna Europaea. Retrieved March 23, 2013
- ↑ genus Anthaxia at BioLib
