Subfamilia: PRIONINAE / Tribus: MACROTOMINI
[Photo © David Navrátil, click on the picture for 4K resolution]
Macrotoma palmata, predominantly an element of the Ethiopian zoogeographic region (in West Palearctics distributed in Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen), has been described from Guinea as Prionus palmatus by Johann Christian Fabricius in 1793 [✧]. This impressive species is polyphagous on many deciduous trees, but in North Africa chiefly on Vachellia (former Acacia) such as V. nilotica, V. tortilis raddiana, and V. seyal (in Libya only observed on V. tortilis raddiana) [❖].
Body length: 25 - 60 mm Life cycle: several years Adults in: May - October Host plant: Vachellia tortilis, Vachellia nilotica Distribution: WP: Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen
The mounted beetles were reared from larvae found in dead Vachellia tortilis in M'Ssici village environs (N31°13′12″ W04°47′42″; 812 m a.s.l., Jebel Tiskaouine, Drâa-Tafilalet region, Morocco) on May 20, 2023 (the last instar larvae finished maturation in dead oak wook). Depicted living adults of Macrotoma palmata were collected on their host Vachellia tortilis raddiana near Germa, Fezzan (Libya).
Collected by David Navrátil and Jean-Claude Ringenbach
[✧]
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 + 1-538, 1793. [download]
[❖]
Sama G., Ringenbach, J.-C. and Rejzek M.:
A preliminary survey of the Cerambycidae of Lybia (Coleoptera).
Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France 110 (4/5): 439-454, 2005. [downloadQuentin R.M. and Villiers A.:
Les Macrotomini de l'Ancien Monde (Région éthiopienne exclue) genera et catalogue raisonné (Col. Cerambycidae Prioninae).
Annales de la Société Entomologique de France, Paris (N. S.) 17 (3): 359-393, 1981. [downloadTrócoli S.:
Actualización del catálogo de Longicornios de Marruecos Actualisation du catalogue des Longicornes du Maroc (Parte I / Partie I : Prioninae, Aseminae, Saphaninae)
Revue de l'Association Roussillonnaise d'Entomologie (R.A.R.E.) 27 (3): 130-140, 2018 [download
[Photo © Jean-Claude Ringenbach]
| Subfamilia | Prioninae Latreille, 1802 |
| Tribus | Macrotomini (Macrotomina) Thomson, 1861 |
| Genus | Macrotoma Audinet-Serville, 1832 |
| Species | Macrotoma palmata (Fabricius, 1792) |