Oxylia argentata (Ménétriés, 1832)
ssp. languida (Ménétriés, 1839)

Subfamilia: LAMIINAE  /  Tribus: PHYTOECIINI
Oxylia argentata languida


[Photo © David Navrátil, click on the picture for 4K resolution]

Oxylia argentata, a species distributed in Crimea, Cyprus, Near East, Transcaucasia and Turkey, has been described from Azerbaijan as Saperda argentata by Edouard Ménétriés in 1832 [✧]. Its East Mediterranean (Palaestino-Cyprioto-Taurian) subspecies O. argentata languida has been described from Syria as Phytoecia longuida (misspelling) by the same author in 1839 [✩][✮]. According to Martin Rejzek et al. in Syria Oxylia argentata develops in Anchusa italica (Boraginaceae) [❖].

Body length:10 - 14 mm
Life cycle:1 year
Adults in:May - June
Host plant:Anchusa, Echium
Distribution:Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey


The depicted mounted beetles were collected in Merom Golan environs (N33°08.813′ E35°47.052′; 958 m a.s.l. Mt. Bental, Western Golan Heights, Northern district, Israel) on April 30, 2018. The living beetle was photographed on the host plant (Echium italicum) in Hasanbeyli environs (Osmaniye province, Mediterranean region of Turkey) on May 29, 2011.

Collected by Walter Grosser and Michal Hoskovec


[✧]
Ménétriés E.:
Catalogue raisonné des objets de Zoologie recueillis dans un voyage au Caucase et jusqu'aux frontières actuelles de la Perse entrepris par ordre de S. M. L' Empereur.
Saint-Pétersbourg 4: 271pp, 1832. [download pdf icon]

[✩]
Ménétriés E.:
Catalogue d'insectes recueillis entre Constantinople et le Balkan.
Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg (6) 5: 1-52, 1839.

[✮]
Mulsant É.:
Histoire Naturelle des Coléoptères de France. Longicornes.
Annales de la Société Impériale d'Agriculture, d'Histoire Naturelle et des Arts Utiles de Lyon 1862: 1-480. [download pdf icon]

[❖]
Rejzek M., Sama G., Alziar G.:
Host plants of several herb-feeding Cerambycidae mainly from east Mediterranean region (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae).
Biocosme Mésogéen 17 (4): 263-294, 2001. [download pdf icon]


Oxylia argentata languida
[Photo © Michal Hoskovec]
Oxylia argentata languida
Oxylia argentata languida
[Photo © Michal Hoskovec]


 
SubfamiliaLamiinae Latreille, 1825
TribusSaperdini Mulsant, 1839
GenusOxylia Mulsant, 1863
SpeciesOxylia argentata (Ménétriés, 1832)
SubspeciesOxylia argentata languida (Ménétriés, 1839)