Longhorn beetle private party

Words
235
Reading
2 min
Listen
Play
5y

I was not invited.
I was rude enough to spy on them though :p
But just for a little bit :)

Longhorn beetle Stictoleptura rubra 3.jpg

I found many of them on those white flowers doing their thing when I was waking around. I believe this is Stictoleptura rubra, but please correct me if I am wrong. This is as close as I managed to find.

Even though the images online show me beetles with black heads and my ones are uniform orange.
They also have the tips of the wings darker. I am wondering if they would change the colour slightly for the mating season?

Longhorn beetle Stictoleptura rubra 1.jpg

It was mating season at full swing and I could see many of them around the white flowers. And it looks like nothing can disturb a hungry female!
She would even move between the clusters of flowers in search of pollen.

They visit flowering plants for nectar and/or pollen, while larvae develop and feed within dead wood and tree stumps of coniferous trees. To develop and reach maturity they need nutrients provided by fungi. Theirs gut contains cellulase-producing yeasts to enable xylophagy, or wood-digestion.
source

Longhorn beetle Stictoleptura rubra 2.jpg

Longhorn beetle Stictoleptura rubra 4.jpg

Longhorn beetle Stictoleptura rubra 5.jpg

They chose lovely little flowers of Water-dropwort as their love nest.
After taking some photos I just left them alone. There was more bugs that day waiting to be shot :)

Water-dropwort 1.jpgWater-dropwort 2.jpg

Longhorn beetle Stictoleptura rubra 6.jpg

»«
Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.




separator flowers.jpg

Longhorn beetle private party | Ecency