ÿHE翜> Monochamus galloprovincialis galloprovincialis
Monochamus (Monochamus) galloprovincialis (Olivier, 1795)
ssp. galloprovincialis (Olivier, 1795)
[= Monochamus (Monochamus) galloprovincialis pistor (Germar, 1818)]

Subfamilia: LAMIINAE  /  Tribus: MONOCHAMINI
Monochamus galloprovincialis
Monochamus galloprovincialis galloprovincialis[Photo © Ismael Pérez]

Monochamus galloprovincialis, a widely distributed species of pine forests occuring in Europe, North Africa, Turkey and Kazakhstan, has been described from Provence (France) as Cerambyx gallo-provincialis by Guillaume-Antoine Olivier in 1795 [☆]. M. galloprovincialis is a very variable species in both color and the toment pattern, so its West Palaearctic populations have been traditionally divided into two subspecies for decades - nominotypic one from Southern Europe and Maghreb and M. galloprovincialis pistor (Germar, 1818), occuring in the rest of Europe and Western Asia. However, according to DNA analysis and genital morphology, M. galloprovincialis pistor is a true junior synonym of M. galloprovincialis galloprovincialis [✯][✧].

M. galloprovincialis develops in branches and trunks of dying, dead, felled or uprooted Pinaceae, especially pines of the subsection Pinus (P. sylvestris and P. nigra-complex). Beetles mainly attack tree crowns, branches and treetops with a smaller diameter (4 - 15 cm), rarely thicker trunks and branches (20 - 25 cm). In older and more massive Pinus sylvestris, the development takes place only in the treetops with a thin bark, the parts with a thick bark are never attacked. Larvae feed subcortically, creating wide corridors that merge into larger areas. During feeding larvae make long wooden chips, which partially eject through openings in the bark. The larval galleries, partially impressed in the sapwood, have a rough surface from feeding. Later, the adult larvae enter the wood, where they continue in feeding in a considerable depth and there they also pupate. The exit holes, often situated on the opposite side of the trunk/branch, have an almost circular shape. The life-cycle is usually one year, less often two years. Adults are diurnal and especially active in late summer, climbing on trunks of the host trees [❖].

Body length:12 - 26 mm
Life cycle:1 (2) years
Adults in:May - September
Host plant:pines (Pinus spp.)
Distribution: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, France, Italy, Portugal, Sicily, Spain, Albania, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkey


The depicted living beetles were captured in: (IS) - South Spain on May 5, 2023; (NR) - coastal pine groove in Croatia on July 11, 2013.

Collected by Ismael Pérez and Nikola Rahmé


[☆]
Olivier G.-A.:
Entomologie ou Histoire Naturelle des Insectes, avec leurs caractères génériques et spécifiques, leur description, leur synonymie et leur figure enluminée.
Coléoptères, Imprimerie de Lanneau, Paris 4: 519pp, Pages 1-124 (1795) and 125-492 (1800). [download pdf icon].

[✯]
Wallin H., Schroeder M. and Kvamme T.:
A review of the European species of Monochamus Dejean, 1821 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) – with a description of the genitalia characters.
Norwegian Journal of Entomology 60 (1): 11-38, 2013. [download pdf icon]

[✧]
Cesari M., Marescalchi O., Francardi V. and Mantovani B.:
Taxonomy and phylogeny of European Monochamus species: first molecular and karyological data.
Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 43 (1): 1 - 7, 2004. [download pdf icon]

[❖]
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 278-279], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1]. [download pdf icon]


Monochamus galloprovincialis
Monochamus galloprovincialis
Monochamus galloprovincialis galloprovincialis[Photo © Ismael Pérez]
Monochamus galloprovincialis galloprovincialis
Monochamus galloprovincialis
Monochamus galloprovincialis galloprovincialis[Photo © Nikola Rahmé]


 
SubfamiliaLamiinae Latreille, 1825
TribusMonochamini Gistel, 1848
GenusMonochamus Dejean, 1821
SubgenusMonochamus Dejean, 1821
SpeciesMonochamus (Monochamus) galloprovincialis (Olivier, 1795)
SpeciesMonochamus (Monochamus) galloprovincialis galloprovincialis (Olivier, 1795)