Stenhomalus bicolor, a widely distributed xerothermic species (Central and South Europe, Near East, Turkey), has been described from Greece as Obrium bicolor by Gustav Kraatz in 1862 [❖]. In Central Europe is S. bicolor a typical species of xerothermic localities such as forest-steppes, desolate orchards, edges of oak-hornbeam groves or natural hedgerows. Larvae of this interesting longhorn beetle develop in dying or weakened thin twigs (up to 10 mm in diameter) of living standing deciduous shrubs and trees, in Central Europe mostly in Euonymus europaeus. Adults, active from April to June, can be beaten from the host trees or blossoming shrubs (e.g. Crataegus) [✧].

Hüseyin Özdikmen in his description of the new subspecies Stenhomalus (Obriopsis) bicolor yazelae claims that only this subspecies (and not the nominative one) occurs in South Turkey [☆]. The depicted specimen collected by Maxim Smirnov in Ulupınar and also the specimens found by the authors of the website in Erdemli environs, however, question this theory.

Body length:	4 - 6 mm
Life cycle:	1 - 2 years
Adults in:	April - June
Host plant:	polyphagous in deciduous trees and shrubs (Euonymus europaeus, Rhamnus frangula, Juglans regia, Crataegus, Ficus, Morus etc.)
Distribution:	Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czechia, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Russia, Serbia, Sicily, Slovakia, Slovenia, Syria, Turkey

The mounted male beetle was collected in Ulupınar village environs (Kemer district, Antalya province, South Turkey) on April 17, 2015.

Collected by Maxim E. Smirnov