Leptura aurulenta, a West-Palaearctic forest species occuring in Europe, Norh Africa and Turkey, has been described from Kiel environs (Germany) by Johann Christian
Fabricius in 1793 [✮]. This remarkable taxon is closely related to preserved beech (Fagus sylvestris) forests, prevailing in lowlands in the northern part of its
distribution area and in mountains in the South. Larval development in the trunks of dead standing or fallen trees of larger diameters, in dead branches and dead parts of living
trees without bark, trunk cavities and also in fallen thick branches. L. aurulenta prefers damp wood in the shade. Larval corridors often penetrate up to 25 cm deep into the wood.
At the time of adult hatching, the wood is often extensively decomposed by fungi. Pupation in wood after the last overwintering, life cycle 2 - 4 years (depends on altitude/region/climatic conditions).
Adults, active from June to August, are diurnal and can be found on flowers (especially males) or on the wood of the host trees (egg layuing females) [▿][❖].
| Body length: | ♂ 12 - 18 mm / ♀ 15 - 23 mm |
| Life cycle: | 3 - 4 years |
| Adults in: | June - August |
| Host plant: | polyphagous in deciduous trees (prefers Fagus, but also reported from Castanea, Carpinus, Alnus, Betula, Quercus,
Juglans, Populus, Salix, Ulmus) |
| Distribution: | Europe except North, North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia), Turkey |
The depicted mounted female (20 mm) was collected in Tellermanovskiy les (Tellerman forest/Теллермановский лес) (N51°20′20″ E41°57′05″;
150 m a.s.l., 9 km SWW Borisoglebsk, Gribanovsky district, Voronezh oblast, Central Federal District, Russia) on July 13, 2009. The living female was photographed Remetské Hámre environs
(Sobrance district, Košice regioén, North-East Slovakia) on June 29, 2019.
Collected by Artem A. Zaitsev and Daniel Rydzi
[✮]
Fabricius J.Ch.:
Entomologia systematica emendata et aucta. Secundum classes ordines, genera, species adjectis synonymis, locis, observationibus, descriptionibus.
Hafniae, C. G. Proft 1 (2): xx + 538pp, 1793
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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 [pages 257-258], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1].
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[❖]
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 94-96], 2018.
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Danilevsky M.L.:
Longicorn beetles (Coleoptera, Cerambycoidea) of Russia and adjacent countries. Part 1.
Higher School Consulting, Moscow, 550pp [pages 322-323], 2014.
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