[= Osphranteria coerulescens inaurata Holzschuh, 1981][✧]
[= Quettania coeruleipennis Schwarzer, 1931]
Subfamilia: CERAMBYCINAE / Tribus: CALLICHROMATINI
[Photo © David Navrátil, click on the picture for 4K resolution]
Osphranteria coerulescens, a species widely distributed in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Turkey, has been described from South Iran by Ludwig Redtenbacher in 1850 [❖]. Larvae of this beautiful Cerambycid feed in living twigs and branches of various Rosaceae and ocassionally when too abundant can cause serious damage to fruit trees. The adults emit a characteristic scent probably serving as a chemical defence used by the beetles to protect themselves against would be predators such as insectivorous birds. The biology of the species was in detail described by S. Sharifi, I. Javadi and John A. Chemsak in 1970 [✮].
Body length: 15 - 25 mm Life cycle: 1 years Adults in: May - July Host plant: Rosaceae (Prunus spp., Malus×domestica, Pyrus communis, Cydonia oblonga, Rosa spp. etc.) Distribution: Iran
The depicted mounted beetles were collected in: ♂ - Kākān (كاكان) village environs (Dinar Mts., Simakan district, Jahrom county, Fars province, Iran) on July 14-16, 2008; ♀ - 15 km W of Kākhk (کاخْک) town (N34°09′ E58°28′; 2100 m a.s.l, Kakhk district, Gonabad county, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran) on May 28, 2008.Collected by Jiří Lorenc and Jiří Klír
[❖]
Kollar V. and Redtenbacher L.:
Ueber den Charakter der Insecten-Fauna von Südpersien..
Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse), Wien I: 42-53, 1850. [download]
[✮]
Sharifi S., Javadi I. and Chemsak J.A.:
Biology of the Rosaceae branch borer, Osphranteria coerulescens (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae).
Annals of the Entomological Society of America 63: 1515–1520, 1970. [download[✧]
Holzschuh C.:
Zwanzig neue Bockkäfer aus Europa und Asien. (Cerambycidae, Col.).
Koleopterologische Rundschau, Wien 55: 91-112, 1981. [download
[Photo © Martin Rejzek]
| Subfamilia | Cerambycinae Latreille, 1802 |
| Tribus | Callichromatini Blanchard, 1845 |
| Genus | Osphranteria L. Redtenbacher, 1850 |
| Species | Osphranteria coerulescens L. Redtenbacher, 1850 |