Subfamilia: CERAMBYCINAE / Tribus: HESPEROPHANINI
[Photo © David Navrátil, click on the picture for 4K resolution]
Trichoferus ilicis, a rare species endemic Morocco, has been described from Ain Leuh environs (Ifrane province) by Gianfranco Sama in 1987 [❖]. T. ilicis is very similar to Trichoferus fasciculatus (Faldermann, 1837), from which it differs at first glance by the dark coloring of the background of the elytra on which a very unevenly distributed whitish pubescence is very clearly visible (with very often a glabrous zone in the posterior third of the elytra). Its larva develops in living branches (2 to 4 cm in diameter) of Quercus ilex [✮].
Body length: 9 - 16 mm Life cycle: 1 - 2 years Adults in: June - August Host plant: Quercus ilex Distribution: a species endemic to Morocco
Depicted beetles weres reared from larvae found in oak (Quercus sp.) twigs collected in: ♂ - Tizi N'Test pass environs (2100-2200 m a.s.l., High Atlas Mts., Al Haouz province, Marrakesh-Safi region, Morocco) on May 15, 2023; ♀ - Col du Zad pass environs (2000 m a.s.l., Middle Atlas Mts., mountain pass in Khénifra Province, Morocco).Collected by David Navrátil
[❖]
Sama G.:
Note préliminaire pour une faune des longicornes de l'Afrique du Nord.
Biocosme Mésogéen, Nice 11 (1): 43-64, 1987. [download]
[✮]
Trócoli S.:
Actualización del catálogo de Longicornios de Marruecos Actualisation du catalogue des Longicornes du Maroc (Parte III / Partie III : Cerambycidae, Cerambycinae).
Revue de l'Association Roussillonnaise d'Entomologie (R.A.R.E.) 28 (3): 143-185, 2019. [download
| Subfamilia | Cerambycinae Latreille, 1802 |
| Tribus | Hesperophanini Mulsant, 1839 |
| Genus | Trichoferus Wollaston, 1854 |
| Species | Trichoferus ilicis Sama, 1987 |