Cerambyx scopolii

Little capricorn beetle ( Cerambyx scopolii )

The Little capricorn beetle ( Cerambyx scopolii ), also called Skopolis Bockkäfer book Bock, Runzelbock book or Gemsbok, is a species in the family of longhorn beetles.

Description

The beetle is solid black in color with a very fine gray pubescence. He has wrinkled elytra and reaches a length of 17-28 mm. His pronotum and the elytra are granular striking. The antennae of the males are significantly longer than the body, the body of the females are long roughly.

Occurrence

Its circulation area covers Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor and extends to the Caucasus. In Germany he is everywhere to find the most common species of the genus Cerambyx and except in the far northwest.

The Little capricorn beetle is moderately thermophilic and therefore is less common in the highlands. More than 1,600 meters, it is not to be found. In Northern Europe, he goes no further than southern Sweden. In Germany, it is still common in many regions, but shows some places in the last 50 years strong decline trends.

Way of life

One usually finds him in June and July flowering shrubs, on sunny forest edges or on fruit trees. He preferred especially elder, dogwood, hawthorn, Umbelliferae and roses.

The larvae are polyphagous and live mainly in arm-thick branches of deciduous trees. They first develop under the bark of various deciduous trees (eg oak, beech, elm, walnut, plum and other fruit trees ), later they go into the wood. You can reach a length of 50 millimeters. The development will take two years before they pupate in a chamber in late autumn. The finished beetle then emerges in May. Occasionally in orchards it occurs as a pest.

Nutrition

The larvae feed on the wood of various deciduous trees, the beetles of pollen.