Psilothrix Viridicoerulea
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''Psilothrix viridicoerulea'' is a species of soft-winged flower beetle belonging to the family
Melyridae Melyridae (common name: soft-winged flower beetles) are a family of beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea. Description Most are elongate-oval, soft-bodied beetles 10 mm long or less. Many are brightly patterned in black and brown, yellow, ...
, subfamily
Dasytinae Dasytinae is a subfamily of soft-wing flower beetles, beetles of the family Melyridae, historically sometimes treated as a separate family, "Dasytidae". Description and distribution Dasytinae are typically small (<8 mm) and parallel-side ...
.


Distribution

This beetle is mainly present in most of Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Malta, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland) 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 ...
. Fauna europaea
There are also additional localized populations in England, mostly on the southern coastline.


Habitat

They are quite common in summer on meadows, pastures, and grasslands, to be seen on a variety of flowers.


Description

The adults grow up to long. La valle del Metauro
The colour of this beautiful insect is brilliant metallic bluish-green. Body is rather long and narrow. Head is slightly longer than wide, with a flat face, large, round eyes and short, green-metallic, hairy antennae, composed by eleven short inwards protruding articles. Pronotum and elytra are thickly, deeply and strongly punctuated and covered of black erect hairs. Elitra are very elongated, square at the base. Legs are long and slender, greenish and hairy. Pygidium (last male tergite) shows a deep but small V-shaped notch. G. Libert
The Dasytidae (Coleoptera) of Sardinia
/ref> This species is rather similar to ''
Psilothrix aureola ''Psilothrix'' is a genus of soft-winged flower beetles belonging to the family Melyridae, subfamily Dasytinae. Subgenus and species The genus is divided in the following two subgenera: * ''Dolichomorphus'' Fiori, 1905 * ''Psilothrix'' Küster ...
''.


Biology

The larvae initially feed on dead insects, then become phytophagous. They bore longitudinal galleries in the stems of some annual weeds (''
Ferula ''Ferula'' (from Latin ''ferula'' ) is a genus of about 220 species of flowering plants in the family Apiaceae, native to the Mediterranean region east to central Asia, mostly growing in arid climates. Many plants of this genus, especially '' F ...
'', '' Magydaris'', ''
Carlina ''Carlina'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It is distributed from Madeira and the Canary Islands across Europe and northern Africa to Siberia and northwestern China.Kovanda, M. (2002)Observations on ''Carlina bieberstein ...
'', ''
Cirsium ''Cirsium'' is a genus of Perennial plant, perennial and Biennial plant, biennial flowering plants in the Asteraceae, one of several genera known commonly as thistles. They are more precisely known as plume thistles. These differ from other thist ...
'', etc.). Metamorphosis takes place in late winter within. The adults leave the pupal chamber in following spring. This species is often associated with graminaceous grasses.


Gallery

File: Dasytidae - Psilothrix viridicoerulea.JPG, Mating couple File: A.hispanicum-flor-1.jpg, Feeding on pollen of '' Aizoanthemum hispanicum'' File: Psilothrix viridicoeruleus (Geoffroy in Fourcroy, 1785) (16774575602).png, Mounted specimen


Bibliography

*La faune de la France illustrée - Rémy Perrier - Tome VI Coléoptères 2nd part


References


External links


Listado entomologico


Melyridae Beetles of Europe Beetles described in 1785 {{Melyridae-stub