Thanasimus formicarius

Ants Thanasimus ( Thanasimus formicarius )

The ants Thanasimus ( Thanasimus formicarius ), also called Common ants Thanasimus, is a beetle of the family of checkered beetles ( Cleridae ). Ants checkered beetles are among the most important predators of bark beetles.

Features

The beetles are seven to ten millimeters long. The pronotum and the underparts are red, head and legs nearly black, and the elytra striking black -white-red banded. Characteristic are the clapper -shaped sensor. The beetles are also built very flat and very hairy. The mandibles bear two cusps inclined surfaces that fit together like pliers so that the cylindrical body of a bark beetle can be very well packed.

Similar Species

• Rotbeiniger ants Thanasimus ( Thanasimus femoral - Syn: T. rufipes Brahm, T. pectoralis foot)
• Common bees beetles ( Trichodes apiarius )

Name

Both the German name, and the scientific name of the species formicarius alluding to the fact that the color, shape, and movement is reminiscent of the beetles to that of wood ants. However, a further connection between them and ants is not.

Occurrence

The animals are prevalent in Europe, Asia and North Africa. Because of their usefulness forest they were also introduced to North America. The beetles come in coniferous forests found everywhere and are frequently observed from spring to autumn on fallen tree trunks or meters of wood and tree stumps on the hunt for bark beetles.

Way of life

Ants checkered beetles are very active already on warm spring days, when the bark beetle swarm particularly intense. If these settle on a stem or stump the ants checkered beetles prey on them surprisingly quickly by placing them take the mandibles and hold it with the front legs. Very deftly remove the shield and the top wing and then eat the soft parts of the body. Ants Thanasimus provide especially after the book printer, the engraver, the lined ambrosia and also the Great Forest gardener. Thanks to its flattened body they can nimbly move even in narrow spaces of the bark, where they like to hide in bad weather. Ants checkered beetles are very shy and looking at disturbances will be a hiding place.

After mating, the females from April to June during several weeks their respective 20 to 30 eggs in bark crevices and in the vicinity of the running under the bark of conifers transitions of the bark beetle. The pink larvae hatch after about a week and live under the bark where they feed on predatory larvae, eggs and pupae of the beetle, but also other living under the bark insects. In pursuit of their prey, they are also very nimble and move very skilled in the bark beetle passes, where they can also run backwards.

The larvae, which grow very slowly, pupate in the fall well protected under the bark in an oval chamber, which they line with mucus. In the following spring the beetles hatch. Sometimes, however, overwinter the Imagines.

Importance in forest protection

Although ants Thanasimus produce only one generation a year, they are among the most useful forest insects. So several bark beetle adult beetles in the day - mainly female - destroy, and the larvae are avid hunters. So they prove to be useful, for example for large windfalls or snow breaks in spruce stands threatened by a mass infestation with book printers. However, they are not able to prevent outbreaks.

Since ants checkered beetles are attracted by bark beetle pheromones, they very often end up as by-catch in bark beetle pheromone traps. Therefore, these traps must be checked regularly and the unintentionally fellow hunters are released. Also control methods such as pheromone baited with insecticide -Fang woodpile or catch woods are therefore disadvantageous for ants Thanasimus.