Subfamilia: PRIONINAE / Tribus: MACROTOMINI
[Photo © Lech Kruszelnicki]
Macrotoma palmata, predominantly an element of the Ethiopian zoogeographic region (in West Palearctics distributed in Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen), has been described from Guinea as Prionus palmatus by Johann Christian Fabricius in 1793 [✧]. This impressive species is polyphagous on many deciduous trees, but in North Africa chiefly on Vachellia (former Acacia) such as V. nilotica, V. tortilis raddiana, and V. seyal (in Libya only observed on V. tortilis raddiana) [❖].
Body length: 25 - 60 mm Life cycle: several years Adults in: May - October Host plant: Vachellia tortilis, Vachellia nilotica Distribution: WP: Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen
Depicted living adults of Macrotoma palmata were collected on their host Vachellia tortilis raddiana near Germa, Fezzan, in Libya by our friend Jean-Claude Ringenbach. The mounted beetles were collected in Algeria.
[✧]
Fabricius J.CH.:
Entomologia systematica emendata et aucta. Secundum classes ordines, genera, species adjectis synonymis, locis, observationibus, descriptionibus.
Hafniae, C. G. Proft 1 (2): xx + 1-538, 1793. [download]
[❖]
Sama G., Ringenbach, J.-C. and Rejzek M.:
A preliminary survey of the Cerambycidae of Lybia (Coleoptera).
Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France 110 (4/5): 439-454, 2005. [downloadQuentin R.M. and Villiers A.:
Les Macrotomini de l'Ancien Monde (Région éthiopienne exclue) genera et catalogue raisonné (Col. Cerambycidae Prioninae).
Annales de la Société Entomologique de France, Paris (N. S.) 17 (3): 359-393, 1981. [download
[Photo © Jean-Claude Ringenbach]
| Subfamilia | Prioninae Latreille, 1802 |
| Tribus | Macrotomini (Macrotomina) Thomson, 1861 |
| Genus | Macrotoma Audinet-Serville, 1832 |
| Species | Macrotoma palmata (Fabricius, 1792) |