Shaggy grain beetle
| Shaggy grain beetle | ||||||||||||
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Shaggy grain beetle ( Anisoplia villosa ) male, hanging from a blade of grass |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Anisoplia villosa | ||||||||||||
| ( Goeze , 1777) |
The shaggy grain beetle ( Anisoplia villosa ) is a beetle from the family Scarabaeidae , subfamily Rutelinae .
etymology
The name of the genus Anisoplia is from Old Gr. άνισος, ánisos, "unequal" and ὁπλή, hoplē "claw" derived. It says that the pairs of claws at the end of the legs consist of two unequal claws, which is a big exception in insects. The species name villosa ( Latin villōsus, a, um) means "shaggy" and refers to the long hair. At Reitter the species is still called Anisoplia agricola .
Characteristics of the beetle
The beetle reaches a length of ten to twelve millimeters. Because of the widely varying coloration in the described and related species, the color can only be used to a limited extent for the determination. With the exception of the wing-coverts, the beetle is black with or without a metallic sheen. The head, pronotum and elytra and the thighs are long and lightly haired. However, the hair can be rubbed off.
The head shield is elongated like a trunk forward, constricted in front of the tip and the broad tip is conspicuously curved up. The mouthparts are not visible from above. The head is wrinkled and dotted with hairy hair. The apex has a longitudinal groove. The antennae are, as in all species of the subfamily, nine-part with a three-part expandable fan.
The pronotum is only slightly narrower at the rear edge than the base of the elytra. At the front it tapers off rounded and is slightly wider than the head at the front edge. It is dense and strongly punctured , the points are not uniform. The hairiness resembles the hairiness of the elytra. The front edge of the pronotum is lined with a membrane.
The wing covers are rounded off together in a semicircle at the back and hemmed in a membrane on the outer edge. In the males they are usually reddish brown with a slight blackening on the shoulders and around the label . In the females, the wing covers are straw-colored with black, distinctive and very variable markings. Mulsant described eight different variants for the females based on the elytra. Typically, at least the wing top seam , shoulders, and a rectangular area around the tag are dark. The elytra are very long everywhere, but not densely hairy, and without bristle hairs on the edge of the wing. The elytra have dotted stripes, the intervals are also dotted, and also partially wrinkled. The label is large, black and semicircular.
The pygidium is dense and punctured like a rasp.
The front hips are cylindrical and largely sunk into the closed hip cavities . The middle hips are roughly orthogonal to the body axis. The front rails are toothed on the outside as parts of a grave bone, opposite the second tooth they have a movable end pin. The middle and rear rails have two spikes close together at the end. The tarsi are all five-limbed, the first four about the same short, together about as long as the claw limb without claws. The claws are of unequal length, the outer claw is stronger than the inner one. In the males' anterior tarsi, it is significantly shorter than the rest of the claw, pointed and truncated at the end.
biology
The beetle can be found on the ears of cereals and other grasses during their flowering period. They eat the anthers . At night they crawl into the ground. The larvae prefer sandy soils and feed on the grass roots. In southern countries they can be harmful, especially in wheat fields. Adults can be found from May to August.
distribution
The center of the distribution area of the species is in southern Western Europe, in Central Europe the occurrence is limited to xerothermal slopes with loose and sandy soil. The species is known from the Iberian Peninsula , southern and central France , southern Central Europe , Germany , Austria , Switzerland , as well as Holland , Poland , the Czech Republic , Slovakia and Romania . In Germany, the sites are in the southwest, in the river valleys of the Middle Rhine, Nahe, Main and Regnitz. Older information from areas to the north and east relate to the sister species Anisoplia erichsoni , which was previously not differentiated. The species is rare everywhere in Germany and threatened with extinction in Bavaria.
Taxonomy and systematics
The genus Anisoplia comprises 54 species (as of 2007), it is Eurasian, with a distribution center in the eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus. Anisoplia villosa is, of the three subgenus, the subgenus Anisoplia s. st. assigned, which includes 47 species. All species are diurnal on grasses, with larvae feeding on grass roots. The species belongs to a group of similar species, the villosa species group. This includes a second, very similar species in Central Europe, Anisoplia erichsoni . Other species of the species group live in southern Europe and the Caucasus.
literature
- Heinz joy , Karl Wilhelm Harde , Gustav Adolf Lohse (ed.): The beetles of Central Europe . tape 8 . Teredilia Heteromera Lamellicornia . Elsevier, Spektrum, Akademischer Verlag, Munich 1969, ISBN 3-8274-0682-X .
- Luis Baguena Corella: Scarabaeoidea de la Fauna Ibero-Balear y Pirenaica Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Instituto Español de Entomologia, Madrid 1967 Imprenta de José Luis Cosano - Palma, 11- Madrid- 10
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sigmund Schenkling: Explanation of the scientific beetle names.
- ↑ Edm.Reitter: Fauna Germanica, the beetles of the German Reich II band KGLutz 'Verlag, Stuttgart 1909 S. 337th
- ↑ Males and females of the nominate form and the black form
- ↑ E.Mulsant: Anisoplia Agricola autumn. v.obscura et sigs. Histoire Naturelle des Coléoptères de France, Lamellicornes Paris 1842 p. 489 f.
- ↑ a b Polish page on the occurrence of the species
- ^ Anisoplia villosa in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved September 1, 2011
- ↑ Eckehard Rößner (1996): Morphology and distribution of the “Anisoplia villosa group” in the Federal Republic of Germany (Col., Scarabaeoidea, Rutelidae). Entomological News and Reports 40: 119-123.
- ↑ Dieter Jungwirth (2003): Red List of Threatened Scarab Beetles in Bavaria. pdf download at the Bavarian State Office for the Environment
- ^ Mary Liz Jameson, Estefania Mico, Eduardo Galante (2007): Evolution and phylogeny of the scarab subtribe Anisopliina (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Anomalini). Systematic Entomology 32 (3): 429-449. doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-3113.2006.00380.x
Web links
- Determination table of the genus Anisoplia in European beetles, from Arved Lompe , accessed on October 31, 2015.