Agapanthia (Smaragdula) violacea (Fabricius, 1775)

Subfamilia: LAMIINAE  /  Tribus: AGAPANTHIINI
Agapanthia violacea

[Photo © David Navrátil & 8K postprocessing M.Hoskovec]

Agapanthia violacea is a widespread and the most abundant West-Palaeractis representative of the Smaragdula subgenus in suitable localities. It is a taxon typical of less agriculturally used areas, pastures, orchards, ruderal localities, road edges, semi-steppes and steppes. The species is polyphagous in a number of herbs, larval development takes place in the central parts of the above-ground stems of plants, pupae close to the ground. Life cycle - one year, adults occur from April to July depending on the climatic conditions of the locality [✧].

The taxonomy of the subgenus Smaragdula Pesarini & Sabbadini, 2004 is very complicated and there are many very contradictory views among cerambycidologists regarding the validity and real existence of many taxa. A comprehensive and detailed revision of the Smaragdula by our colleague and friend Karel Hodek from the summer of 2021 attempts to answer many questions concerning this issue [▽].

Body length:7 - 13 mm
Life cycle:1 year
Adults in:April - August
Host plant:polyphagous in herbaceous plants (Medicago, Scabiosa, Onobrychis, Echium, Psoralea, Bituminaria etc.)
Distribution:Europe except North, Russia, Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Turkey


The depicted mounted beetles were collected on Bituminaria bituminosa in Souli (Σούλι) village environs (570 m a.s.l., Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece) on May 21, 2018. The living specimen was collected in Agioi Theodoroi (Άγιοι Θεόδωροι) village environs (Grevena municipality, Grevena regional unit, West Macedonia, Greece) on May 18, 2022.

Collected by David Navrátil and Daniel Rydzi


[✧]
Vitali F.:
Atlas of the Insects of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg: Coleoptera, Cerambycidae.
Ferrantia, Musée national d’histoire naturelle, Luxembourg 79: 1-208 [pages 55-56], 2018. [download pdf icon]

[▽]
Hodek K.:
Review of the subgenus Smaragdula Pesarini & Sabbadini, 2004, and two new species from Turkey (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Laminae, Agapanthiini)
Natura Somogyiensis 36: 81-110, 2021. [download pdf icon]


Agapanthia violacea
Agapanthia violacea
[Photo © Daniel Rydzi]


 
SubfamiliaLamiinae Latreille, 1825
TribusAgapanthiini Mulsant, 1839
GenusAgapanthia Audinet-Serville, 1835
SubgenusSmaragdula Pesarini & Sabbadini, 2004
SpeciesAgapanthia (Smaragdula) violacea (Fabricius, 1775)