ssp. coerulescens (Scopoli, 1763)
[alternative spelling: Opsilia caerulescens (Scopoli, 1763)]
Subfamilia: LAMIINAE / Tribus: SAPERDINI
[Photo © David Navrátil, click on the picture for 4K resolution]
Phytoecia (Opsilia) coerulescens, a very common and broadly distributed Palaearctic steppe species, widespread from North Africa to Northern Mongolia, has been described as Leptura Cœrulescens from Carniola (Kranjska, Slovenia) by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1763 [✮]. P. coerulescens develops in herbaceous plants such as Echium, Cerinthe, Cynoglossum, Anchusa, Symphytum, Lithospermum, Lappula, Lycopsis, etc. The larva of O. coerulescens feeds in the roots of the host. Later the larva girdles the plant stalk above ground level and secures this part with a wad of fibrous frass (see the P. coerulescens biology page). In the autumn the attacked stalks are regularly broken at the girdle by wind. Surprisingly, the adults do not leave the substrate via the already created opening (by simply removing the wad) but create a new one in the side of the stalk.
Body length: 6 - 13 mm Life cycle: 1 year Adults in: April - July Host plant: polyphagous in in herbaceous plants (Echium, Cerinthe, Cynoglossum, Anchusa, Symphytum, Lithospermum, Lappula, Lycopsis, etc.) Distribution: Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, Middle East, Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Iran, Turkestan, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Mongolia, China
Mounted specimens were collected in: ♂ - Taounate (تاونات) environs (350 m a.s.l., Taounate province, Er Rif Mts., Féz-Meknés region, Morocco) on April 15, 2024; ♀ - Mutivan environs (Croatia) on May 23, 2014.The depicted living beetles were collected on their host plant (Echium vulgare) in Tuklaty village environs (Central Bohemia, Czechia) on May 15, 2017 and in Bělušice village environs (Most district, Ústí nad labem region, Czechia) on June 5, 2021.
Collected by David Navrátil and Daniel Rydzi
[✮]
Scopoli G.A.:
Entomologia Carniolica exhibens Insecta Carniolæ indigena et distribua in ordines, genera, species, varietates. Methodo Linnæana.
Trattner, Vindobonae: 6 + i-xxiii + 421pp [page 49], 1763. [download]
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 341-342], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1]. [downloadVitali F.:
Atlas of the Insects of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg: Coleoptera, Cerambycidae.
Ferrantia, Musée national d’histoire naturelle, Luxembourg 79: 208pp [pages 79-80], 2018. [download
[Photo © Daniel Rydzi]
| Subfamilia | Lamiinae Latreille, 1825 |
| Tribus | Saperdini Mulsant, 1839 |
| Genus | Phytoecia Pic, 1892 |
| Subgenus | Opsilia Mulsant, 1863 |
| Species | Phytoecia (Opsilia) coerulescens (Scopoli, 1763) |
| Subspecies | Phytoecia (Opsilia) coerulescens coerulescens (Scopoli, 1763) |