Subfamilia: LAMIINAE / Tribus: SAPERDINI
Saperda octopunctata couple [Photo © Milan Lovětínský]
Saperda octopunctata, a widely distributed but not common European species occuring also in Transcaucasia, has bee described as Leptura Octopunctata by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1772 [❖].
In Central Europe, this beautiful species inhabits mixed deciduous forests, lime alleys and solitary lime trees (Tilia). The larvae develop under the bark of thicker lime branches and trunks with a diameter above 10 cm. The females lay eggs on standing dying/dead, uprooted or felled trees and freshly cut thick branches. Standing trees are infested from the ground level to the crown. Before pupation, the larva bore into the sapwood, where it creates the hook-shaped pupal cell, at the end of which there is a exit hole, sealed with wooden splinters. Larvae of S. octopunctata rarely pupate under the bark or directly in the thick bark. Life-cycle 2 years, species overwinters in the larval stage. Adults occur from the last days of May to July, with the peak in the second half of June, mostly in the treetops. Ovipositing females cand be also found on freshly felled lime-wood [▽].
Body length: 11 - 21 mm Life cycle: 1 - 3 years Adults in: May - July Host plant: reported as a polyphagous species in deciduous trees, but in Central Europe prefers strongly lime (Tilia) Distribution: Azerbaijan, Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Belarus, Croatia, Czechiac, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Moldavia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro
The depicted beetles were reared from larvae found in dead lime (Tilia sp.) trunks in Křivoklátsko UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (Central Bohemia, Czechia) during winters 2020 and 2021.Collected by Miroslav Polcar
[❖]
Scopoli G.A.:
Observationes zoologicae. Annus V. Historico Naturalis.
Christian Gottlob Hilscheri, Lipsiae 5: 1-128, 1772. [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 309-310], 1998 [ISBN: 80-238-2627-1]. [download
Saperda octopunctata couple [Photo © Milan Lovětínský]
Saperda octopunctata ♂♂ [Photo © Milan Lovětínský]
Saperda octopunctata ♀ [Photo © Milan Lovětínský]
| Subfamilia | Lamiinae Latreille, 1825 |
| Tribus | Saperdini Mulsant, 1839 |
| Genus | Saperda Fabricius, 1775 |
| Subgenus | Lopezcolonia Alonso-Zarazaga, 1998 |
| Species | Saperda (Lopezcolonia) octopunctata (Scopoli, 1772) |