Familia: VESPERIDAE / Subfamilia: VESPERINAE / Tribus: VESPERINI
[Photo © David Navrátil, click on the picture for 4K resolution]
Vesperus saquranus, a rare endemic species to South Spain, has been described according to males collected in Parque Natural de las Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas (Jaén province) by Marcos A. López, Manuel Baena and Alejandro Castro Tovar in 2020 [▽]. Females of the species have not yet been collected and described. The biology of a species, which is close to Vesperus fuentei Pic, 1905, is not yet known, but due to the nature of the type locality, it is likely that the larvae feed on roots of herbaceous plants or grasses rather than woody plants.
Body length: 14.6 - 19.2 mm Life cycle: 2 and more years [?] Adults in: August Host plant: unknown, probably polyphagous on the roots of herbaceous plants / grasses Distribution: an endemic species to south Spain (Parque Natural de las Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas, Jaén province)
The depicted male beetles were collected on Campos de Hernán Perea karst plateau (1600 m a.s.l., Parque Natural de las Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas, Jaén province, Spain) on August 16, 2021 (type locality).Collected by our friend Marcos López, to whom we gratefully thank for the depicted donated specimens
[▽]
López M.A., Baena M. and Castro Tovar A.:
A new species of Vesperus from the Natural Park Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y las Villas, Vesperus saquranus sp. nov. (Coleoptera, Vesperidae).
Transactions of the American Entomological Society, Philadelphia 146 (3): 481-502, 2020. [download]
| Familia | Vesperidae Mulsant, 1839 |
| Subfamilia | Vesperinae Mulsant, 1839 |
| Tribus | Vesperini Mulsant, 1839 |
| Genus | Vesperus Dejean, 1821 |
| Species | Vesperus saquranus López, Baena & Castro Tovar, 2020 |