Lepturalia nigripes rufipennis (Blessig, 1873)

Karpinski, Lech, Szczepanski, Wojciech T., Boldgiv, Bazartseren & Walczak, Marcin, 2018, New data on the longhorn beetles of Mongolia with particular emphasis on the genus Eodorcadion Breuning, 1947 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae), ZooKeys 739, pp. 107-150 : 114

Lepturalia nigripes rufipennis (Blessig, 1873) Fig. 1H

Material examined.

Toev Aimag : 70 km NE of Ulaanbaatar (47°57'N, 107°49'E), 1833 m a.s.l., 30 VII 2015, 1♂, on Seseli condensatum , leg. MW; Selenge Aimag: 50 km NE of Zuunkharaa (49°05'N, 107°17'E), 930 m a.s.l., 02 VIII 2015, 8 larvae, Betula platyphylla , leg. LK, MW, and WTS .

Remarks.

This is a temperate Palaearctic species that is distributed from north-eastern Europe to the Far East ( Švácha and Danilevsky 1989, Sama 2002). Moreover, the subspecies L. nigripes rufipennis is known to occur in the easternmost part of its territory from East Siberia and Kazakhstan to the Far East ( Danilevsky 2017a).

In Mongolia, it is a quite common species, especially in stands having a large share of birch trees (e.g., Namhaidorzh 1972, Cherepanov 1990a, Müller et al. 2013), which is the main preferred host plant species. The development of the larvae takes place in trunks, branches, and decaying stumps. The adults fly from May to August and feed on the flowers of various species ( Cherepanov 1990a, Sama 2002).

A single male was observed on flowers in the forest steppe (Fig. 7A ). The larvae (Fig. 7B ) were found in the rotten stumps of the birch Betula platyphylla in their basal zones in the light taiga (Fig. 7C ). Like L. thoracica , this species, which is very rare in Europe, seems to be rather common in pristine local habitats of both Mongolian taiga and forest steppe.

Figures

Figure 1. Photos of longhorn beetles specimens collected during the expedition to Mongolia in 2015: A Gaurotes virginea aemula (female) B Stictoleptura variicornis (male) C S. variicornis (female) D Anastrangalia sequensi (male) E A. sequensi (male, melanistic form) F A. sequensi (female) G Pachyta lamed (male) H Lepturalia nigripes rufipennis (male) I Pachytodes longipes (female).

Figure 7. Field photos of immature stages and habitats of typical Mongolian cerambycid species: A larches in forest steppe, the habitat of Lepturalia nigripes rufipennis B larva of L. nigripes in a birch stump C site in light taiga, the habitat of L. nigripes rufipennis and Agapanthia pilicornis pilicornis D site in forest steppe, the habitat of Clytus arietoides, Monochamus impluviatus impluviatus and M. sutor longulus E broken trunk of the birch in light taiga, the microhabitat of inter alia Xylotrechus hircus and Aegomorphus obscurior F birches in light taiga, the habitat of X. hircus, A. obscurior, Saperda scalaris hieroglyphica and Mesosa myops G larva of Xylotrechus pantherinus H larva of X. pantherinus deep in the wood of a standing willow trunk.