Gaurotes virginea

Gaurotes virginea
	Gaurotes virginea thalassina
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Suborder:	Polyphaga
Superfamily:	Cerambycoidea
Family:	Cerambycidae
Subfamily:	Lepturinae
Genus:	Gaurotes
Species:	G. virginea
Binomial name
	Gaurotes virginea; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
	Carilia virginea (Linnaeus) Villiers, 1978; Leptura virginea Linnaeus, 1758; Pachyta virginea (Linnaeus) Küster, 1846; Gaurotes virgineum (Linnaeus) (misspelling); Gaurotes virgineus (Linnaeus) (misspelling);

Gaurotes virginea is a species of the

long-horned beetle family.^[1]

Subtaxa

There are four varietets in species, and four varietets in nominative subspecies:[1]

Gaurotes virginea aemula Mannerheim, 1852
Gaurotes virginea kozhevnikovi Plavilstshikov, 1915
Gaurotes virginea thalassina (Schrank, 1781)
Gaurotes virginea virginea (Linnaeus, 1758)

Gaurotes virginea virginea var. notaticollis (Pic)
Gaurotes virginea virginea var. sanguinaria (Pic)
Gaurotes virginea virginea var. vidua (Mulsant, 1839)
Gaurotes virginea virginea var. violacea (DeGeer)

Distribution and habitat

This beetle is distributed in most of Europe (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland) and in the eastern Palearctic realm (Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and Korea).^[1]^[2] They inhabit spruce forests. They are very common and frequent along the alpine arc.^[3]

Description

Gaurotes virginea has a body length of 7–13 millimetres (0.28–0.51 in).^[4]^[3] These beetles are quite robust, elytra are bright blue with a metallic sheen. Pronotum is black, reddish or black with rusty spots. The abdomen is usually reddish, but some subspecies are characterized by a totally black prothorax and black abdomen.^[5]

This species is rather similar to Dinoptera collaris, but G. virginea is bright blue with strong metallic reflections while D. collaris is bright black without metallic reflections. Moreover, the first species shows an obtuse tooth on the sides of the prothorax, while in the second the sides of the prothorax are rounded.

Biology

The life cycle of these beetles lasts two years. Larvae are oligophagous wood borers in coniferous trees, they live under the bark and mainly feed on Scots pine (

Larix species. Adult beetles can be found from May to August. Adult beetles feed on pollen of various flowers, especially on Heracleum sphondylium.^[4]^[3]^[6]