Subfamilia: PRIONINAE / Tribus: MEROSCELISINI
[Photo © M.Hoskovec]
These pictures show a female of Tragosoma depsarium (Linnaeus, 1767). Tragosoma depsarium is a Holoarctic species. In the Palaearctics it lives in the coniferous forests of Europe and Siberia. In Europe it reaches the Pyrenees in the SW and the mountain Olympus (Greece) in the SE. In Central Europe, however, it certainly belongs to the rarest longhorn beetle species. However, thanks to the use of traps with Tragosoma sex pheromone [❖], today we find that the abundance of the species is higher in suitable localities than we expected. Tragosoma depsarium develops in Pinus spp. and also in Norway spruce (Picea abies). Larvae of Tragosoma depsarium feed primarily in the decaying sapwood of dead, fallen trunks, and occasionally in old stumps (cf. Figures 1 - 3). The development period lasts at least three years. Pupation takes place in the wood and adults appear from the end of June to August (middle of July to August in Central Europe) and are active during the night.
Body length: 16 - 35 mm Life cycle: > 3 years Adults in: June - August Host plant: Pinus, Picea abies Distribution: Holoarctic species
The beetle in these pictures was reared from a larva collected in a dead fallen trunk of Picea abies.Collected by M.Rejzek
[❖]
Ray A.M., Barbour J.D., McElfresh J.S., Moreira J.A., Swift I., Wright I.M., Žunič A., Mitchell R.F., Graham E.E., Alten R.L., Millar J.G., Hanks L.M.:
2,3-Hexanediols as Sex Attractants and a Female-produced Sex Pheromone for Cerambycid Beetles in the Prionine Genus Tragosoma.
Journal of Chemical Ecology 42: 631–654, 2016. [download]
[Photo © M.Hoskovec]
Subfamilia: Prioninae Latreille, 1802
Tribus: Meroscelisini Thomson, 1860
Genus: Tragosoma Audinet-Serville, 1832
Species: Tragosoma depsarium (Linnaeus, 1767)