''Cryptocephalus sericeus'' is a species of beetle of the family

Chrysomelidae The beetle family Chrysomelidae, commonly known as leaf beetles, includes over 37,000 (and probably at least 50,000) species in more than 2,500 genera, making it one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle families. Numerous s ...

, subfamily

Cryptocephalinae The Cryptocephalinae are a subfamily of the leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae), and belong to the group of case-bearing leaf beetles called the Camptosomata. The cases are made from the feces of larvae, passed from one instar to the next, and ultimat ...

Subspecies

Subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

include: *''Cryptocephalus sericeus sericeus'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the starting point of modern zoologic ...

) *''Cryptocephalus sericeus zambanellus'' (Marseul, 1875) (

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

Herzegovina Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical Regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia (reg ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

) *''Cryptocephalus sericeus intrusus'' (Weisw, 1882) (

)

Distribution

This species can be found in most of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, in the eastern

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The ...

from Siberia east to northwestern China, and in the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

. It is not present in the British Isles.

Habitat

These beetles inhabit lawns and meadows, especially with yellow flowers of

Apiaceae Apiaceae () or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium,'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot, or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering p ...

species.

Description

''Cryptocephalus sericeus'' can reach a length of about . The body of these little beetles is squat, cylindrical and almost oval. Elytra are irregularly punctured, not arranged in longitudinal rows. They do not completely cover the last part of the abdomen. Pronotum and elytra are golden green in males, while females show a metallic bronze color, with green-blue, orange or yellow reflections. The antennas are thread-shaped and relatively long. The head, the legs, and antennae are dark colored. This species is rather similar to '' Cryptocephalus aureolus'', '' Cryptocephalus praticola'', '' Cryptocephalus solivagus'', '' Cryptocephalus therondi'' and '' Cryptocephalus hypochoeridis''.

Biolib

Adults can be found from April to July. The feed on pollen, especially on the yellow flowers of

species. Larvae feed on leaves of the host plants. They live in a housing that consists of their own droppings. The pupation takes place in the soil.

Gallery

File: Cryptocephalus (Cryptocephalus) sericeus sericeus.JPG, ''Cryptocephalus sericeus sericeus'' File: Cryptocephalus sericeus front.JPG, Front view File:Cryptocephalus sericeus LC0295.jpg, ''Cryptocephalus sericeus'' of varying colors

References

* Michael Chinery, Insectes de France et d'Europe occidentale, Paris, Flammarion, 2012, 320 p. (), p. 282-283 * Novak, P., 1964 - I Coleotteri della Dalmazia - Atti Mus. civico Storia Nat., Trieste, 24: 53-113 * Petitpierre, E., 2000 - Fauna Iberica. Vol. 13. Coleoptera Chrysomelidae I. - Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid, 521 pp.

External links

* * * Borowiec L.
Culex.biol.uni.wroc.pl Chrysomelidae of Europe
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1250648 sericeus Beetles of Europe Beetles described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus