Hylotrupes bajulus, a species originating in Europe, and having been spread in timber and wood products, now has a practically cosmopolitan distribution, including Southern Africa, Asia, the Americas, Australia,
and much of Europe and the Mediterranean. H. bajulus is probably the most feared and dangerous species of longhorn beetle in Europe - it damages timber
(especially wood from pines, spruces, firs and larches) in rural and urban buildings and causes large financial losses every year. Larval development in completely dead debarked processed coniferous wood. The larvae are
able to survive and develop in the dry timber for up to 17 years, in addition, adults can mate and reproduce inside the infested wooden structures without leaving the larval gallery. This makes the detection of an attack
very difficult. Several generations of larvae can feed in timber without leaving visible traces on the surface, while its inner part can be completely destroyed and changed into a dust. Adults, active from June to September,
are during the day hidden in crevices or gaps between the beams. Sometimes it is possible to find beetles in the wild in old pine forests [❖][✧].
| Body length: | 7 - 21 mm |
| Life cycle: | 2 - 17[!!] years |
| Adults in: | June - September |
| Host plant: | prefers dead wood of coniferous trees (Pinus spp., Picea abies, Abies ssp. Larix decidua) |
| Distribution: | synantropic species, whole WP area |
The depicted mounted beetle was collected in Sóller environs (Serra de Tramuntana comarca, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain) in 1988.
The living specimen was found in Prague centre (Czechia) on May 29, 2018.
Collected by U.Schmidt and Daniel Rydzi
[❖]
Vitali F.:
Atlas of the Insects of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg: Coleoptera, Cerambycidae.
Ferrantia, Musée national d’histoire naturelle, Luxembourg 79: 1-208 [pages 79-80], 2018.
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]
[✧]
Sláma M.E.F.:
Tesaříkovití – Cerambycidae České republiky a Slovenské republiky.
[ Cerambycidae of the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. ]
Milan Sláma private printing, Krhanice, 383pp [page 274-275], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1].
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