Ropalopus (Ropalopus) macropus (Germar, 1824)
[= Rhopalopus macropus (Germar, 1824)]

Subfamilia: CERAMBYCINAE  /  Tribus: CALLIDIINI
Ropalopus macropus
[Photo © Daniel Rydrzi]

Ropalopus macropus, a species distributed in Central and South-Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Iran and Turkey, has been described from Austria as Callidium macropus by Ernst Friedrich Germar in 1824 [❖]. R. macropus is a polyphagous species of edges of deciduous stands, pastures, forst-steppes, old gardens, abandoned old orchards and unmaintained tree alleys. The larvae develop subcortically in dying or dead deciduous trees of smaller diameters (approximately 3-10 cm). The female lays eggs in various materials - thinner trees, dead branches on standing living trees and pruned branches lying on the ground, wooden fences made of deciduous wood with bark, etc. The larval galleries are flat and shallow, reminiscent of Buprestidae galleries. Sometimes it attacks the same wood for the second year. Pupation mostly only in a shallow inclined hook-shaped chamber shallow in wood (3 - 15 mm). Life-cycle one or two year. Adults, active from May to July, do not visit flowers and can be found on host trees, logs, piles of pruned branches, etc. [✧].

Body length:7 - 14 mm
Life cycle:1 - 2 years
Adults in:April - July
Host plant:polyphagous in deciduous trees (Juglans, Quercus, Fagus, Prunus etc.)
Distribution:Central / SE Europe, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey


The depicted living beetles were reared from larvae found in: (DR) - Pouzdřany environs (Břeclav district, South Moravia, Czechia) during winter 2018; (TN) - Hungary in spring 2016.

Collected by Daniel Rydrzi and Tamás Németh


[❖]
Germar E.F:
Coleopterorum species novae aut minus cognitae, descriptionibus illustratae. Insectorum species novae aut minus cognitae, descriptionibus illustratae. Vol. I. Coleoptera.
Halae, J.C. Hendelii & Filii, xxiv + 624 pp, 1824. [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 130-131], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1]. [download pdf icon]


Ropalopus macropus
[Photo © Tamás Németh]


 
SubfamiliaCerambycinae Latreille, 1802
TribusCallidiini Mulsant, 1839
GenusRopalopus Mulsant, 1839
SubgenusRopalopus Mulsant, 1839
SpeciesRopalopus (Ropalopus) macropus (Germar, 1824)