Purpuricenus wachanrui, an Irano-Anatolian species known from Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, has been described from Turkey by Gustave Levrat in 1858 [✧].
P. wachanrui is extremely variable species with many known populations, especially in Iran. Its body is bigger or smaller, antennae can be longer or shorter, with 11 or 12 segments in one population,
thoracic spines distinct or obliterated, black design of pronotum and elytra can be strongly developed or rather reduced. Similar populations are distributed mosaically in the area of occurence and
similar forms can be strongly distant that makes difficult subspecies delimitation. Strong individual variability caused several taxa descriptions based on small series of specimens [✮].
Purpuricenus wachanrui robusticollis, a rare subspecies endemic to West Iran, has been described as Purpuricenus robusticollis from "Perse" (Iran) by Maurice Pic in 1905 [▽].
The taxonomic level of the taxon P. robusticollis was lowered to the level of the subspecies of P. wachanrui by Mikhail Leontievich Danilevsky and Karel Hodek in 2024 [✮].
The bionomy of this hitherto little-known and collected taxon was clarified only recently by Czech entomologists in 2013 [❖]. Adults of P. wachanrui robusticollis were collected on the
flowers of Centaurea behen and also on the stems of thistle Cousinia silyboides (Cynareae, Carduoideae, Asteraceae). Several specimens were found in pupal cells in the soil at the roots of
these thistles at a depth of 10-15 cm. The larvae live in the soil and feed on the roots of the host plant.
| Body length: | 12 - 20 mm |
| Life cycle: | 2 - 3 years |
| Adults in: | May - June |
| Host plant: | Cousinia silyboides (Cynareae, Carduoideae, Asteraceae) |
| Distribution: | a species endemic to West Iran |
The depicted female beetle was collected in Alīgūdarz (الیگودرز) environs (Zagros Mts., Alīgūdarz county, Ostān-e Lorestān preovince, Iran) on June 3, 2010.
Collected by J.Dalihod
[✧]
Levrat G.:
Description de deux Coléoptères nouveaux.
Annales de la Société Linnéenne de Lyon (nouvelle série) 5: 261-263, 1858.
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[✮]
Danilevsky M.L. and Hodek K.:
A complex of taxa around Purpuricenus wachanrui Levrat, 1858 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae)
Humanity space – International Almanac 13 (8): 662-687, 2024.
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[▽]
Pic M.:
Descriptions et Notes Diverses.
Matériaux pour servir à l'étude des Longicornes 5 (2): 5-15, 1905.
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[❖]
Ambrus R. & Grosser W.:
Results of the Czech entomological expedition to Iran (2009-2010) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)
Humanity space - International almanac 2 (3): 461-482, 2013.
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