Monochamus sutor sutor, a widely distributed inhabitant of the Eurasian coniferous forest belt from Atlantic coast to West Siberia, has been described from "Europa" as Cerambyx sutor by Carl Linné in 1758 [☆].
In Central Europe, M. sutor sutor inhabits coniferous, mainly spruce forests in sites mostly of the original occurrence of Norway spruce (Picea abies). Development under the bark and in the wood of branches and tips of weakened, dying
or freshly dead, mostly older and very strong trees, often in uprooted or on the ground lying trees. The young larvae feed subcortically, older enter the wood, where they continue in the feeding and create irregular gallery
even deep across the infested tree. Larvae overwinter twice, then pupate in the pupal cells in the wood. The freshly hatched imago leaves the pupal cell via a straight exit corridor to the wood surface where it creates a typical circular exit hole
(see the M. sutor sutor biology page). Life-cycle usually two, less often one or three years. Adults, active from June to September (with peak in July), can be found sitting on the fresh logs, felled or uprooted
trees or crawling on trunks of standing dying trees. Adults also perform the maturity feeding on bark of fresh thin twigs [❖][✧].
| Body length: | 15 - 24 mm |
| Life cycle: | 1 - 2 (3) years |
| Adults in: | June - September |
| Host plant: | prefers Norway spruce (Picea abies), in North Europe also in pines (Pinus spp.) |
| Distribution: | Western, Middle and North-Eastern Europe, Balcan Peninsula, Georgia, West Siberia, Northern Mongolia, Kazakhstan |
The depicted living beetles were photographed in: ♂ - Praded National Nature Reserve (Hrubý Jeseník Mts., North Moravia, Czechia) on June 4, 2020;
♀ - Podbanské environs (Pribylina, Vysoké Tatry Mts., Liptovský Mikuláš district, Žilina region, Slovakia) on June 29, 2020.
The depicted mounted male was collected in Sankt Ulrich am Pillersee environs (Kitzbühel district, Tyrol, Austria) on August 26, 2008.
Collected by Daniel Rydzi and Udo Schmidt
[☆]
Linné C.:
Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis.
Systema naturae (Editio 10) Laur. Salvius, Holmiae 1: 824pp [page 392], 1758.
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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 282-283], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1].
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[✧]
Cherepanov A.I.:
Cerambycidae of Northern Asia, Volume 3 - Laminae Part I.
Amerind Publishing, New Delhi: 300pp [pages 111-119], 1990.
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Wallin H., Schroeder M. and Kvamme T.:
A review of the European species of Monochamus Dejean, 1821 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) – with a description of the genitalia characters.
Norwegian Journal of Entomology 60 (1): 11-38, 2013.
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