Arhopalus ferus (Mulsant, 1839)
[= Criocephalus tristis (Fabricius, 1787)]
[= Criocephalus polonicus Motschulsky, 1845]

Subfamilia: SPONDYLIDINAE  /  Tribus: ASEMINI

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[Photo © David Navrátil, click on the picture for 4K resolution]

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Arhopalus ferus, a widespread (Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, Near East, China) but relatively rare species, has been described from Bordeaux environs as Criocephalus Rusticus var. Ferus by Étienne Mulsant in 1839 [▽]. The biology of the species is practically identical to the sister but much more abundant taxon A. rusticus (Linnaeus, 1758), it is often possible to find larvae of both species in one pine trunk [❖][✧][✶].

A. ferus is often misdetermined as A. rusticus (Linnaeus, 1758), which principally differs from this taxon in the more reddish and parallel-sided body [a], a furrow at each side of the pronotal disc [b], the deeply bilobed metatarsomere III in males and hairs on compound eyes [d].

Body length:	♂♂ 9 – 25 mm / ♀♀ 14 – 27 mm
Life cycle:	3 – 4 years
Adults in:	June – September
Host plant:	pines (Pinus spp.)
Distribution:	Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Austria, Croatia, Czechia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, China, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Syria, Turkey

The depicted mounted beetles were collected in Primošten (N43°35′27″ E15°55′25″; 14 m a.s.l., Šibenik-Knin county, Dalmatia, Croatia) on July 18-21, 2011. The living specimen (taken in detail) has been reared from larva found in Pinus in Lebanon in spring 2016.

Collected by David Navrátil and Tamás Németh

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[▽]
Mulsant E.:
Histoire Naturelle des Coléoptères de France. Longicornes.
Paris, Maison: vii-xii + 304pp, 1839. [download ]

[❖]
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 81-82], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1]. [download ]

[✶]
Danilevsky M.L.:
Longicorn beetles (Coleoptera, Cerambycoidea) of Russia and adjacent countries. Part 1.
Higher School Consulting, Moscow, 550pp [pages 368-369], 2014. [download ]

[✧]
Vitali F.:
Atlas of the Insects of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg: Coleoptera, Cerambycidae.
Ferrantia, Musée national d’histoire naturelle, Luxembourg 79: 1-208 [pages 106-107], 2018. [download ]

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	[a] A comparison of male silhouettes of Arhopalus rusticus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Arhopalus ferus (Mulsant, 1839).
	[b] A comparison of pronotum in Arhopalus rusticus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Arhopalus ferus (Mulsant, 1839). Two distinct furrows on the pronotal disc in A. rusticus together with the different width/height ratios of the both taxa pronota are clearly visible. [Photo © David Navrátil]
	[c] A comparison of male hind tarsi of Arhopalus rusticus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Arhopalus ferus (Mulsant, 1839) A. rusticus: Third segment of tarsus (metatarsomere III) incised almost to base A. ferus: Third segment of tarsus (metatarsomere III) incised apically to about 1/3-1/2 its total length [Photo © David Navrátil]
[click on the picture better resolution]	[d] A comparison of composed eyes of Arhopalus rusticus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Arhopalus ferus (Mulsant, 1839). Eyes of Arhopalus rusticus are distinctively pubescent. [Photo © David Navrátil]

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[Photo © Tamás Németh]

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Subfamilia	Spondylidinae Audinet-Serville, 1832
Tribus	Asemini Thomson, 1860
Genus	Arhopalus Audinet-Serville, 1834
Species	Arhopalus ferus (Mulsant, 1839)