Fire-coloured beetle
Scarlet Fire beetle ( Pyrochroa coccinea)
The fire beetle or Cardinals ( Pyrochroidae ) are a family of beetles, which includes about 140 species worldwide. In Europe, eight species occur, three of them are represented in Central Europe. Owes its name to this family of beetles eye-catching red color of many of its species. In the vernacular, the term Fire beetle is often mistakenly used for the fire bug.
Features
The fire beetles are 3-20 mm long and have a flat and elongated, but still wide body. He is often conspicuously colored red to brick-red, the body top is covered with fine hair. The head of the animals is large and flat, and is constricted to the base, the temples are clearly visible. The pronotum is slightly narrower than the elytra, and has a rounded shape. On it you can see impressions and a fine central furrow. The elytra are widened behind and have longitudinal grooves in some species. The antennae are short to about legs long, have eleven members and are combed in the males from the third link, completely sawed in females. The legs have four Tarsenglieder front and five in the middle, back. The penultimate Tarsenglied is heart-shaped.
Occurrence
The animals live in deciduous forests and the forest. They are found mainly on flowers and deadwood. In Central Europe they fly from May to June.
Way of life
The adults feed preferentially of sweet juices such as honeydew from aphids or tree sap, but they rarely eat. The larvae, which have a strongly flattened body shape, live under bark either invested in itself, or third party programs. Many species are predators of other insects or their larvae, but most feed on other than alleged in many sources of fungi. Their development takes two to three years that pupate in a chrysalis cradle between the wood and the bark. Since fire beetle larvae destroy, among other bark beetle larvae, they are considered beneficial.
Some species can be attracted by cantharidin, some fly at night to light, or can be attract by fermented fruits.
Species ( Central Europe)
- Scarlet Fire beetle ( Pyrochroa coccinea)
- Red-headed fire beetle ( Pyrochroa serraticornis )
- Orange Fire beetle ( Schizotus pectinicornis )