Pronocera sibirica, a species of North-East Palaearctic forest belt occuring in Russia, Kazakhstan, Korea and North China, has been described from Öskemen/Ust-Kamenogorsk (Kazakhstan)
as Callidium brevicolle by Friedrich August Gebler in 1833 [❖]. But due to preoccupation of name "brevicolle" is valid species name "sibiricum" (Callidium sibiricum) used as nomen novum
by the same author in 1848 [✧]. Larvae of P. sibirica develop in dead/dying branches or weakened tops of the mature host trees, spruce (Picea) is strongly preferred host tree in Siberia.
They feed subcortically creating meandering galleries deeply impressed in alburnum (up to 2.0 mm) and plugged with fine frass. Before the second overwintering larvae enter the wood and leave transversely elongate-oval opening
on surface plugged with frass. After the second overwintering larvae make hook-shaped pupal cell in the end of gallery, pupate and hatch during May - June. Life-cycle 2 years. Adults, active from June to early September,
lead a cryptic mode of life, do not visit flowers and can be found on the host trees [✩].
| Body length: | 9 - 13 mm |
| Life cycle: | 2 years |
| Adults in: | June - September |
| Host plant: | polyphagous in coniferous trees (Picea, Pinus, Abies) but very rare also in deciduous trees (Acer) |
| Distribution: | Russia (East Siberia, Far East), Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, North China |
Depicted male beetle collected in Chibit (Чибит) village environs (Chuya river, Ulagansky district, Altai republic, Siberian federal district, Russia) on July 15, 2004.
Collected by A. Safronov
[❖]
Gebler F.A.:
XXX. Notæ et additamenta ad catalogum Coleopterorum Sibiriæ occidentalis et confinis Tatariæ operis (Voyage de C. F. Ledebours dans les monts Altaïques et les Steppes des Kirguises.) 2e partie.
Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou 6: 235-309, 1833.
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[✧]
Gebler F.A.:
Verzeichniss der im Kolywano-woskresenskischen Hüttenbezirke Süd-West Sibiriens beobachteten Kæfer mit Bemerkungen und Beschreibungen.
Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou 21 (2): 317-423, 1848.
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[✩]
Cherepanov A.I.:
Cerambycidae of Northern Asia, Volume 2 - Cerambycinae Part I.
Amerind Publishing, New Delhi: 304pp [pages 184-191], 1988.
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