Familia: VESPERIDAE / Subfamilia: VESPERINAE / Tribus: VESPERINI
[Photo © David Navrátil, click on the picture for 4K resolution]
Vesperus lucasi, an endemic species to South Spain, has been described according to males collected in from Lucena environs (Córdoba province) by José Manuel Barreda and Manuel José Mejías García in 2014 [▽]. V. lucasi female has been found in the type locality and described later, in 2016, by José Manuel Barreda, Manuel José Mejías García and Juan Luis Morell [❖]. The interesting data about biology, morphological variability and distribution of this rare species, which is close to Vesperus fuentei Pic, 1905, were published by Marcos A. López, Manuel Baena and Alejandro Castro Tovar in 2020 [✧].
Adults, active in September, are nocturnal (males can be attracted by light, especially ultra-violet). Males fly after twilight and actively search females, which use sexual pheromones for their attracting. Females can be found early at night (9 PM) on the ground in sparse vegetation near the emergence holes, where they statically awaiting the approach of the males. After copulation (ca 2 hours long), the females lay the eggs in the same place near the base of a large grass tussocks, which serve most likely as the nutrient plants for their larvae. Males die shortly after copulation, females live approximately 2-3 days [✧].
Body length: 13.5 - 19 mm Life cycle: 2 and more years [?] Adults in: September Host plant: probably polyphagous on the roots of grasses Distribution: an endemic species to south Spain (Córdoba an Jaén provinces)
The depicted male beetles were collected in Cerro Molina hill at Puente Tablas (Jaén city environs, Jaén province, Spain) on September 19, 2021.Collected by our friend Marcos López, to whom we gratefully thank for the depicted donated specimens
[▽]
Barreda J.M. and Mejías García M.J.:
Una especie nueva de Vesperus Dejean, 1821 de la comarca de la Subbética Cordobesa (España), Vesperus lucasi n. sp. (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Vesperinae).
Boletín de la Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa 53 [2013]: 81-85, 2014. [download]
[❖]
Barreda J.M., Mejías García M.J. and Morell J.L.:
Descubrimiento y descripción de la hembra de Vesperus lucasi Barreda & Mejías, 2013 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Vesperinae)..
Boletín de la Sociedad Andaluza de Entomología 26: 10-17.: 81-85, 2016. [download[✧]
López M.A., Baena M. & Castro Tovar A.:
Nuevos datos sobre la biología y distribución de Vesperus lucasi Barreda & Mejías, 2013 (Coleoptera: Vesperidae).
Boletín de la Sociedad Andaluza de Entomología 30: 22-29, 2020. [download
| Familia | Vesperidae Mulsant, 1839 |
| Subfamilia | Vesperinae Mulsant, 1839 |
| Tribus | Vesperini Mulsant, 1839 |
| Genus | Vesperus Dejean, 1821 |
| Species | Vesperus lucasi Barreda & Mejías García, 2014 |