In Central Europe Trichoferus pallidus is a very rare and almost monophagous species. It develops in oaks (Quercus spp.), only very occasionally in Tilia or Castanea sativa. Larvae feed subcortically in dead standing trunks or thick branches, creating broad shallow galleries and later they build a pupal cell in the bark or in the sapwood. Trichoferus pallidus is a nocturnal species and is attracted to light.

Body length:	10 - 20 mm
Life cycle:	1 - 2 years
Adults in:	June - July
Host plant:	polyphagous in deciduous trees, but strongly prefers oak (Quercus)
Distribution:	Central and West Europe, Crimea, North Caucaus

The species has been decades considered as very rare in Czechia, with very limited known area of distribution in South Moravia (Břeclav environs). Surprisingly, species was recently (2017) discovered by our friend Jan Bořucký in probably the best preserved broadleaf Central European temperate forests complex in Bohemia - Křivoklátsko Protected Landscape Area (which is also declared as UNESCO Biosphere reserve) [❖].

The depicted beetles were reared from larvae found under the bark of a dead standing oaks: living specimen in (Quercus robur), Křivoklátsko Protected Landscape Area (Central Bohemia, Czechia) in 2020; the mounted specimen in (Quercus cerris) in Břeclav environs (South Moravia, Czechia) in 2002.

Collected by Miroslav Polcar and M.Hoskovec

---

[❖]
Bořucký J.:
První nález tesaříka Trichoferus pallidus (Olivier, 1790) (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) v Čechách / First find of longhorn beetle Trichoferus pallidus (Olivier, 1790) (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) in Bohemia.
Západočeské entomologické listy 8: 55–57, 2017. [download ]