Rhamnusium bicolor (Schrank, 1781)
ssp. bicolor (Schrank, 1781)
[= Cerambyx glaucopterus Schaller, 1783]
[= Rhagium Schrankii Laicharting, 1784]
[= Stenocorus Ruficollis Herbst, 1784]
[= Stenocorus rubro-violaceus Geoffroy, 1785]
[= Callidium Salicis Fabricius, 1787]
[= Cerambyx Rubroviolaceus Villers, 1789]
[= Rhagium Etruscum Rossi, 1790]

Subfamilia: LEPTURINAE  /  Tribus: RHAMNUSIINI
Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
[Photo © Kirill V. Makarov, www.zin.ru]

This beautiful and remarkable European species is bound to old living deciduous trees, where it develops in dead wood, especially in hollows in the trunks or in dead stubs. The affected tree can be identified by the typical exit holes in the hollow. Larvae feed in the dead wood, that has contact with the living tissue. Development cycle 2-3 years, pupation in spring in the wood, emergence in May-August. Adults, which are crepuscular/nocturnal, hide in hollows and rarely fly [✧][✳]. Taxonomy of genus Rhamnusium was solved in Mikhail Danilevsky's paper in 2012 [❖].

Rhamnusium bicolor has been described from Vienna environs (Austria) by Franz von Paula Schrank in 1781 [▽].

Body length:♂♂ 14-24 mm / ♀♀ 18-24 mm
Life cycle:2 - 3 years
Adults in:May - June
Host plant:polyphagous in deciduous trees (Populus, Aesculus, Ulmus, Fagus, Salix, Acer, Quercus, Castanea, Juglans, Tilia, Platanus)
Distribution:Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg†, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine


Thed depicted mounted specimens were collected in Novoiletsk (Новоилецк) village environs (Sol-Iletsky Urban Okrug, Orenburg Oblast, Volga Federal District, Russia). The living beetles in the pictures were collected in a hollow trunk of a living horse chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum) in: (DR) – Praha-Satalice (Central Bohemia, Czechia) on June 18,2023; (MP/ML) – Lány village environs (Central Bohemia, Czechia) on June 19, 2020.

Collected by Kirill V. Makarov, Daniel Rydzi and Miroslav Polcar


[✧]
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 187-188], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1]. [download pdf icon]

[✳]
Danilevsky M.L.:
Longicorn beetles (Coleoptera, Cerambycoidea) of Russia and adjacent countries. Part 1.
Higher School Consulting, Moscow, 550pp [pages 74-77], 2014. [download pdf icon]

[❖]
Danilevsky M.L.:
A contribution to the revision of the genus Rhamnusium Latreille, 1829 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae).
Studies and Reports Taxonomical Series 8 (1-2): 43-65, 2012. [download pdf icon]

[▽]
von Paula Schrank F.:
Enumeratio Insectorum Austriae indigenorum.
August Vindelicorum, Klett & Franck: i-xxii + 548pp [page 132], 1781. [download pdf icon]


Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
[Photo © Daniel Rydzi]

Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
Rhamnusium bicolor bicolor
[Photo © Milan Lovětínský]



 
SubfamiliaLepturinae Latreille, 1802
TribusRhamnusiini Sama, 2009
GenusRhamnusium Latreille, 1829)
SpeciesRhamnusium bicolor (Schrank, 1781)
SubspeciesRhamnusium bicolor bicolor (Schrank, 1781)