''Meloe violaceus'', the violet oil beetle, is a species of oil beetle belonging to the family

Meloidae Blister beetles are beetles of the family Meloidae, so called for their defensive secretion of a blistering agent, cantharidin. About 7,500 species are known worldwide. Many are conspicuous and some are aposematically colored, announcing their ...

subfamily

Meloinae Meloinae is a subfamily of beetles in the family Meloidae. There are at least 330 described species in Meloinae. Genera * '' Cordylospasta'' Horn, 1875 * '' Cysteodemus'' LeConte, 1851 (desert spider beetles) * ''Epicauta'' Dejean, 1834 * ''Eupo ...

. These beetles are present 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 ...

, 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 ...

, and in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

. This species is characterized by

hypermetamorphosis Hypermetamorphosis, or heteromorphosis, is a term used mainly in entomology; it refers to a class of variants of holometabolism, that is to say, complete insect metamorphosis. Hypermetamorphosis is exceptional in that some instars, usually larva ...

, a kind of complete insect metamorphosis in which, in addition to the normal stages of larva, nymph and imago, they have several others, with great differences in appearance and way of life. Meloidae - Meloe violaceus-2

The body of ''Meloe violaceus'' is long, females are somewhat larger than the males. These beetle are black-blue or violet-blue, head and pronotum are very finely dotted and the elytra are quite shorter than the abdomen, as in other

species. The adults live on a sunny, dry area with flowering plants, feeding on pollen. In May–June the female digs into the soil deep cylindrical holes, where they lay a very large quantity of eggs (about 2,000–10,000). After about a month larvae emerge from eggs and climb up on grass or on flowers, waiting to cling to the thorax of approaching potential host insects seeking pollen or nectar. The larvae have an exclusively parasitic life, primarily in the nests of solitary bees, or sometimes of locusts. If the larvae have inadvertently selected a honey bee, they die in the hive and may cause serious damage. When the host female bee lays eggs in its cells, the first-stage larva of the violet oil beetle eats the eggs of the bee, increases in volume and becomes the second-stage larva, which continues its development eating honey and pollen. The larva, after other two stages, forms the nymph and finally the imago.

References

* Anderson, R., Nash, R. & O'Connor, J. P., 1997, Irish Coleoptera: a revised and annotated list, Irish Naturalists' Journal Special Entomological Supplement, 1–81 * Buck, F. D., 1954, Coleoptera: Lagriidae to Meloidae
Bug Guide, Oil Beetles (''Meloe'')
* Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust
Join the Hunt for Amazing Oil Beetles
* Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust
Oil Beetle Life Cycle

Meloidae

External links

Biolib

Habitas

Fauna Europaea
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1315694 Meloidae Beetles of Europe Beetles described in 1802