Asemum tenuicorne, a very rare species with scattered distribution over Europe and Near East, has been described from Crimea by Gustav Kraatz in 1879 [❖]. The biology of this interesting and little-known European primeval coniferous forest relict is similar to the common Palaearctic species Asemum striatum (Linnaeus, 1758). Interesting data on the distribution, biology and morphology of A. tenuicorne were published by Jerzy M. Gutowski and Jacek Kurzawa in 2019 [✮]. Adults, active from May to July, are crepuscular and nocturnal.

Due to the considerable morphological variability of A. tenuicorne, the validity of the subspecies A. tenuicorne claricostulatum (described by Hüseyin Özdikmen and Fatih Aytar in 2012 from Turkey) remains questionable and requires more detailed taxonomic analysis [✳].

Body length:	♂♂ 10 - 15 mm / ♀♀ 11 - 18 mm
Life cycle:	at least 2 years
Adults in:	May - July
Host plant:	pines (Pinus spp.)
Distribution:	Austria, Greece, Italy, Poland, SW Russia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, Georgia, Syria, Turkey

The depicted mounted beetle was collected in Taygetos Mts. (1350 m, Neohori, Peloponnese, Greece). The living specimens was photographed in Guntramsdorf environs (N48°03′44″ E16°17′29″; Lower Austria, Austria) on May 27, 2023.

Collected by Petr Boža and Per Hoffmann Olsen

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[❖]
Kraatz G.:
Ueber die Bockkäfer Ost-Sibiriens, namentlich die von Christoph am Amur gesammelten.
Deutsche entomologische Zeitschrift, Berlin 23 (1): 77-117 [page 97], 1879. [download ]

[✮]
Gutowski J.M. and Kurzawa J.:
New data on the distribution, biology and morphology of Asemum tenuicorne Kraatz, 1879 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), with new records from Poland.
Entomologica Fennica 30 (2): 57-71, 2019. [download ]

[✧]
Danilevsky M.L.:
Longicorn beetles (Coleoptera, Cerambycoidea) of Russia and adjacent countries. Part 1.
Moscow: Higher School Consulting 1: 1-522 [pages 25-26], 36 pls., 2014. [download ]

[✳]
Özdikmen H. and Aytar F.:
A new subspecies of Asemum tenuicorne Kraatz, 1879 from Turkey (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae).
Munis Entomology & Zoology 7 (2): 1252-1255, 2012. [download ]

Tamutis V., Alekseev V.:
A faunistic review of Spondylidinae Audinet-Serville, 1832 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) of the south-eastern Baltic region (Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Region).
Biologija 68 (1): 14-34,, 2022. [download ]