Subfamilia: CERAMBYCINAE / Tribus: CALLIDIINI
[Photo © David Navrátil, click on the picture for 4K resolution]
Pronocera angusta, a rare species distributed in Central and South-East Europe, has beed described from München environs (Germany) as Callidium angustum by Joseph Kriechbaumer in 1844 [❖][✧]. P. angusta develops predominantly in Norway spruce (Picea abies), very rarely also in European silver fir (Abies alba) and probably also in common larch (Larix decidua). The larvae feed subcortically in recently dead or dying branches and tops of standing spruces, mostly with a diameter of 3-10 cm. It preferably lays eggs in spruces infested with the bark beetle Polygraphus poligraphus and the spruce fungus Armillaria ostoyae. The hook-shaped pupal cell is built in the sapwood. Development lasts two years. Adults, active from June to August, are crepuscular/nocturnal and never visit flowers. Most adults remain in the treetops, so most specimens of this interesting beetle were caught by beating of living spruce branches [✳].
According to the authors of the portal P. angusta is a relatively widespread species. Its density, especially in the last two decades in Central Europe, has been rising due to the mass dying of spruces (Picea abies) at lower and middle altitudes. Thanks to a very hidden way of life, however, the species escapes attention. Adults can be obtained relatively easily by collecting larval-infested wood.
Body length: 8 - 12 mm Life cycle: 2 years Adults in: June - August Host plant: coniferous trees, but strongly prefers Picea abies Distribution: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romaina, Slovakia
The depicted beetles were reared from larvae collected in a dead spruce (Picea abies) branches in: (MH) - Bělečko village environs (Býšť, Pardubice district, Pardubice region, East Bohemia, Czechia) on May 9, 2021; (ML) - Křivoklátsko Protected Landscape Area (Central Bohemia, Czechia) in winter 2021-2022.Collected by David Navrátil and Miroslav Polcar
[❖]
Kriechbaumer J.:
Uebersicht der Cerambyciden Münchens.
Dissertatio Inauguralis, München, 22pp, 1844. [download]
[✧]
Kriechbaumer J.:
Callidium angustum, neue Art (Übersicht Ceramb. Münchens).
Entomologische Zeitung herausgegeben von dem entomologischen Vereine zu Stettin 7 (4): 111-112, 1846. [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 132-134], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1]. [download
[Photo © Michal Hoskovec]
[Photo © Michal Hoskovec]
[Photo © Milan Lovětínský]
| Subfamilia | Cerambycinae Latreille, 1802 |
| Tribus | Callidiini Mulsant, 1839 |
| Genus | Pronocera Motschulsky, 1859 |
| Species | Pronocera angusta (Kriechbaumer, 1844) |