[= Leiopus taeniatus (Gmelin, 1790)]
Subfamilia: LAMIINAE / Tribus: ACANTHOCININI
[Photo © Daniel Rydzi]
Leiopus linnei, a common European forest species, was described by Henrik Wallin, Ulf Nylander, and Torstein Kvamme described in 2009. L. linnei is a sibling species in Europe to the well-known and highly variable Leiopus nebulosus (Linnaeus, 1758) and for 250 years it was hidden in collections. Both species differ in combination of subtle characters, including the male genitalia and female spermathecae. Leiopus linnei appears to be common in Central Europe lowlands and is here also probably more anbundant then L. nebulosus, which is predominantly recorded from coastal areas of Europe. The biology of the species is the same as that of the L. nebulosus [❄].
L. linnei and L. nebulosus are very similar morphologically and their identification is difficult and possible only by experienced taxonomists. For this reason, a supporting determination method these two species based on hind wings measurements was developed and published by Robert Rossa, Jakub Goczał and Adam Tofilski in 2017 [✧]. Integrative approaches for precise identification and range delimitation of the three most common european Leiopus species were published by Andrii M. Zamoroka in 2025 [✱].
In 2022, Mikhail Leontievich Danilevsky and Gérard Luc Tavakilian questioned the validity of L. linnei's description [✳], arguing that it is a synonym of Gmelin's 1790 description [✮] of the species Leiopus taeniatus. However, this was reliably refuted in a 2024 paper by Torstein Kvamme, Henrik Wallin, and Mikael Sörensson [✬], and so Leiopus linnei remains the valid name for this interesting taxon with a turbulent history.
Body length: ♂♂ 5.0–9.2 mm / ♀♀ 6.4–9.5 mm Life cycle: 1 - 2 years Adults in: May - July Host plant: polyphagous in deciduous trees (Fagus, Quercus, Carpinus, Juglans, Acer, Ulmus, Betula, Salix, Prunus) Distribution: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia (West Siberia)
The depicted beetles were collected (DR - May 2, 2020) or reared (MP/ML - winter 2021) from larva found in a dead oak (Quercus sp.) in Křivoklátsko Protected Landscape Area (Central Bohemia, Czechia).Collected by Daniel Rydzi and Miroslav Polcar
[❖]
Wallin H., Nylander U., Kvamme T.:
Two sibling species of Leiopus Audinet-Serville, 1835 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) from Europe: L. nebulosus (Linnaeus, 1758) and L. linnei sp. nov.
Zootaxa 2010: 31-45, 2009. [download]
[✧]
Rossa R., Goczał J., Tofilski A.:
Hind wing morphology facilitates discrimination between two sibling species: Leiopus nebulosus and L. linnei (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae).
Zootaxa 4227 (2): 266-278, 2017. [download[✳]
Danilevsky M.L. & Tavakilian G.L.:
Additions and corrections to the Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera, vol. 6/1, 2020. Revised and Updated Second Edition. Chrysomeloidea I (Vesperidae, Disteniidae, Cerambycidae). Part II
Humanity space - International Almanac 11 (2): 107-171, 2022. [download[✮]
Gmelin J.F.:
Caroli a Linné Systema Naturæ per Regna tria Naturae, secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Classis V. Insecta.
Editio 13. Lipsiae, Georg Emanuel Beer 1 (4) : 1517-2224, 1790 [download[✬]
Kvamme T., Wallin H., Sörensson M.:
Leiopus taeniatus (Gmelin, 1790) (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) – a misidentified species and forgotten name.
Norwegian Journal of Entomology 71 (2): 225-234, 2024. [download[✱]
Zamoroka A.M.:
Integrative approaches for precise identification and range delimitation of the three most common european Leiopus species (CC).
Zoodiversity 59 (1): 45–68, 2025. [download[❄]
Sláma M.E.F.:
Tesaříkovití – Cerambycidae České republiky a Slovenské republiky / Cerambycidae of the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.
Milan Sláma private printing, Krhanice, 383pp [pages 302-303], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1]. [download
[Photo © Milan Lovětínský]
[Photo © Daniel Rydzi]
| Subfamilia | Lamiinae Latreille, 1825 |
| Tribus | Acanthocinini Blanchard, 1845 |
| Genus | Leiopus Audinet-Serville, 1835 |
| Subgenus | Leiopus Audinet-Serville, 1835 |
| Species | Leiopus (Leiopus) linnei Wallin, Nýlander & Kvamme, 2009 |