Macroleptura thoracica (Creutzer, 1799)
ssp. thoracica (Creutzer, 1799)
[= Leptura altaica Gebler, 1817]
[= Leptura thoracica Creutzer, 1799]
[= Strangalia thoracica (Creutzer, 1799)]

Subfamilia: LEPTURINAE  /  Tribus: LEPTURINI
Macroleptura thoracica thoracica

[Photo © Roman Hergovits, click on the picture for 4K resolution]

Macroleptura thoracica, in Europe very rare and endangered but widely distributed Eurasian species, has been described from Carniola (Slovenia) as Leptura thoracica by Christian Creutzer in 1799 [▽]. M. thoracica larvae develop in completely dead wood of dead/or partially dead standing trees. Very rarely, development takes place in lying trunks or logs left after harvesting. It prefers strong trunks with a diameter of 40 to 100 cm or more. The female lays her eggs most often in the upper parts of dead standing trees (5 m or higher). Larval galleries, clogged with sawdust, reach a width of up to 17 mm and are situated 4-30 cm deep in the wood. Before pupation, the larvae bite through to the surface of the wood, create a pupal cell and leave a layer of wood usually 1-4 mm (sometimes up to 15 mm) thick. The life cycle three or four years. Adults, active from June to August, are diurnal and anthophilous [❖][✮][✳].

Body length:18 - 30 mm
Life cycle:3-4 years
Adults in:June - August
Host plant:polyphagous in deciduous trees, in Europe prefers Fagus sylvestris (also develops in Tilia, Acer, Betula, Salix caprea, Ulmus, Quercus, Alnus, Populus tremula etc.)
Distribution:from Europe (Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Balcan peninsula) to China, Mongolia, Korea and Japan


The mounted beetles were collected in Arsenyev environs (Primorsky krai, Far Eastern federal district, Russia) on May 27 - July 5, 1991. The living beetles, larvae and pupae were photographed and collected in Puszcza Bialowieska (Bialowieza Forest, Poland) by Lech Kruszelnicki.


[▽]
Creutzer Ch.:
Entomologische Versuche.
Schaumburg, Wien: 142pp, 1799. [download pdf icon]

[❖]
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 253-255], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1]. [download pdf icon]

[✮]
Danilevsky M.L.:
Longicorn beetles (Coleoptera, Cerambycoidea) of Russia and adjacent countries. Part 1.
Higher School Consulting, Moscow, 550pp [page 333-335], 2014. [download pdf icon]

[✳]
Tamutis V. and Alekseev V.:
A survey of Lepturinae Latreille, 1802 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) of the south-eastern Baltic region (Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Region).
Biologija 66 (4): 169-235, 2020. [download pdf icon]


Macroleptura thoracica thoracica
[Photo © Lech Kruszelnicki]



 
SubfamiliaLepturinae Latreille, 1802
TribusLepturini Latreille, 1804
GenusMacroleptura Nakane & Ohbayashi, 1957
SpeciesMacroleptura thoracica (Creutzer, 1799)
SubspeciesMacroleptura thoracica thoracica (Creutzer, 1799)