There are a lot of insects in the world. They are classified into units and families. There is even a separate science that is engaged exclusively in the class of insects entomology. The squad of hard winged has about 400,000 species, of which more than 14,000 lives on the territory of Eurasia. In the barn family (another name: lumberjacks) there are many extraordinary beetles. There are very beautiful and rather rare among them. One of these can be called an alpine barbel.
Description and appearance
Alpine barbel is represented by the only relict look in the kind of Rosalia. Backing has a catchy appearance. The length of his body is from 15 to 38 mm. It is covered with short hairs. The color is gray or bluish-gray. There are three black spots with a white border on gray-blue flat udder. One of them is located in the middle, two others along the edges. But the drawing can be different in each specific individual. There are even absolutely black beetles. There is a black spot in the upper part of the bluish front. On the sides of the aperture stupid teeth and sharp tubercles on both sides.
Blue antennae of color consist of 11 segments. Each of them ends with a black ball. Moreover, from the third to the sixth or eighth seiner there is a bunch of dark hairs and a vertical clove. In males, a mustache is 1.5-2 times longer than the body. Antennae of females are approximately equal to the body in length.
The larva is fleshy and large-reaches 35-40 mm in length and 8 mm in width. It has a white color with orange spots. On both sides there are 2 or 4 small eyes. Legs consist of 4 segments with a pronounced claw.
Labor
Alpine barbel prefers to settle in fishing, beeches or oaks in mountain forest massifs. Can live at an altitude of 1.5 km above sea level. The trees choose mainly old, sometimes fallen by the wind or broken by frost. Often beetles settle in freshly cut wood.
The barbecue area is extensive and extends to the southern, eastern and central Europe. The northern habitat is limited by the territory of Denmark. In the east, the beetle lives in Ukraine in the Carpathian mountains, the Caucasus, Turkey, Armenia, in the northwest of Iran. It also lives in the Atlas mountains in northern Africa.
In Eurasia, Usach populates the Voronezh, Rostov, Chelyabinsk, Samara regions, Krasnodar, Stavropol Territory, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya, Bashkiria, Ingushetia.
Food
Adult beetles are active all summer and only in the daytime. They love sunny weather very much. They feed on the nectar of flowers and wood juice. That is why they prefer damaged trees. Their wood is soft, it is easy to bite into it in search of juice.
From the eggs laid down by the female in the cracks of wood, larvae appear after two weeks. They gnaw their way to the surface, simultaneously eat bark and then turn into dolls. The development of this stage usually takes three years.
Interesting Facts
Alpine barbel is a very unusual beetle:
The type of alpine barbel is listed in the Red Book of Eurasia and belongs to the category of “disappearing”. It happened because of the cutting of the old forest, in which there are beech and visas trees. The view disappears from the uncontrolled capture of beetles for collections. In Slovakia, the Czech Republic and on the Balkan Peninsula, the beetle almost disappeared. The law protects this rare beetle in Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic.
