Opsilia coerulescens

Dotted sealing roller block ( Opsilia coerulescens ), male

The sealing Dotted roll neck block ( Opsilia coerulescens ) is a beetle of the family of longhorn beetle and the subfamily Lamiinae. It is widely distributed in Europe and comes in Crete in the subspecies coerulescens Opsilia cretensis ago. Previously Opsilia was run as a subgenus of the genus Phytoecia and the species is described accordingly in the literature under Phytoecia coerulescens. Linguistically, there is a likelihood of confusion with Phytoecia caerulea.

The species name coerulescens coerulescens from the Latin for blue is misleading, because the beetle is more gray to turquoise. The genus name is Opsilia AltGr. ὄψ " OPS " derived for "eye", Phytoecia is from AltGr. φυτόν " Phyton " for " plant" and οἰκία " oikia " for " Apartment " composed and expresses that the beetle can be found in its host plant.

Characteristics of the beetle

The beetle is black, but appears by a dense gray to greenish pubescence pale greenish or blue-green to light gray. In addition to the attached short hair he has on the front part of the body still long protruding, predominantly black hairs ( Fig. 6). It reaches a length of six to thirteen millimeters. The cylindrical body tapering in the male backwards significantly, less in the female.

The head is perpendicular to the body axis inclined downwards ( Fig. 2) and, seen from above wider than long. The sensors are about eleven-membered body length. The compound eyes are not only, as usual with longhorn beetles, strongly emarginate, but by the inwardness of the sensor completely into an upper and a lower part separated ( Fig. 4). Another important feature is that the upper jaw does not end up like the other European species of the genus in a bit, but expire in two peaks ( Fig. 7).

The neck plate (Fig. 6) bears in the center and next to the lateral crash ever a dense hairy and thus appearing brighter stripes. In addition to the short blue-green hair it is loose protruding hairy black and light. It is wider than and behind the center of long widest.

The elytra are at the base wider than the pronotum and how the pronotum densely punctured and irregularly. The scutellum is densely hairy ( Fig. 6).

The abdomen is relatively short, less than the rest of the body ( Fig. 3). On the hind legs the first Tarsenglied is significantly longer than the two following together (Fig. 5, bottom ). For all tarsi, the fourth generation is very small as in the great majority of the longhorn beetle and hidden between the lobes of the third element ( Fig. 5, top ).

Biology

The adults encountered in Central Europe from May to July to the host plants on. The species is classified as xerothermophil, the habitat should not therefore be too moist and not too cool. As habitats warm and dry slopes, Kalktriften, heathland, quarries, moorland and sandy floodplains are given. Nevertheless, there are data from the Fund level to six thousand feet before, preferably the localities in Central Europe in hilly and mountainous locations. When the sun Imagines swarm around lunch time at low altitude the breeding plants.

The larva is polyphagous and develops in various herbaceous plants ( Echium, Cerinthe, Cynoglossum, Anchusa, Symphytum, Lithospermum, Lappula, Lycopsis, ...), in Central Europe, mainly in snake head. The eggs are stored on the basis of the host plant. The larva eats the inside of the stem, both upwards and downwards in the root. In the autumn they often gnaw at the base of the host plant a ring close to the surface. While retreating in the root of the larva clogged the aisle with coarse Genagsel. The wind then bends the infected plant in the amount of the annular feeding passage. In spring the Imago drilled in the stem below the breaking point a Ausschlupfloch. The development takes one year.

Dissemination

The species is reported from almost all of Europe, but it is missing in the UK, Denmark, Scandinavia and the Baltic States. In Belarus, the incidence is questionable. In addition, the beetle is found in North Africa, Asia Minor and the Middle East. To the east, the range extends far into Asia. In Australia it was introduced.

Relevance to humans

In Australia, the species was introduced in 1995 for weed control against Echium plantagineum.