TYT.LThome / Insecta · vabzdžiai / Coleoptera · vabalai / Cantharidae · minkštavabaliai / Cantharis livida var. rufipes · juodablauzdis minkštavabalis

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Cantharis livida var. rufipes · juodablauzdis minkštavabalis

  • livid soldier beetle
  • Gul blødvinge
  • Variabler Weichkäfer
  • nummisylkikuoriainen
  • juodablauzdis minkštavabalis
  • geel soldaatje, bleekgele weekschild, bleekgele weekschildkever
  • omomiłek parkowy

Most of the text below is from now defunct site www.ukbeetles.co.uk, where it was published under a CC BY 4.0 License.

This species is present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, and in North Africa. It has also been introduced to the eastern United States and Canada. Cantharis livida lives in bushes, edges of forests and meadows. These soldier beetles can be found on flowers, trees and shrubs from May to July, hunting for small insects. Also the larvae are predators, feeding on snails and earthworms.

Cantharis livida reaches a length of 10–15 mm. The body of this species is flat and long, with a weak exoskeleton. The colour is quite variable, depending on the subspecies. Elytra are usually yellow or reddish-brown, but in the form var. rufipes they are black or dark brown. The head, the thorax, the abdomen are bright red or orange. The long antennae are reddish, with darker tips. The legs are reddish, with brownish tarsi.

This species is generally common throughout much of the Palaearctic region; it extends from Europe through Asia Minor and Russia to Siberia and Mongolia although it is not known from China or Japan although following recent introductions it has become established and widespread in Eastern Canada and the United States. The species is locally common across Europe from the Pyrenees to Greece and Ukraine in the south, and north to the UK, Denmark and into northern provinces of Fennoscandia, it is widespread in North Africa but absent from most of the Atlantic islands and most of the Mediterranean islands. Several varieties are known, rufipes Herbst, 1784, in which the elytra are bluish-black with a pale subhumeral marking, occurs throughout the European range although its abundance varies; it is rather scarce in the UK but is the more common form in Poland, and var. bicolorata Ragusa, 1893, in which the elytra are darkened towards the apex, is known only from Italy. In the UK the species is widespread and locally common throughout England and Wales and very local and scarce further north into central Scotland. Adults are active over a short season from April until July or August although in most seasons the first specimens are not recorded until the middle of May. Typical habitats are open woodland, wooded parkland, scrub, hedgerows and grassland with plenty of shrubby vegetation; it is typically a lowland species although in Europe it is often common in mountain valleys etc. up to 2000 m. Adults are diurnal, they fly well and visit a range of flowers to feed on nectar and pollen although they also predate small insects when doing so and they can be cannibalistic, the females sometimes eating the males following mating. Females lay small batches of eggs into the ground from June and each will produce about 450 eggs. Larvae emerge after about two weeks they will spend their entire life on the ground, hunting mostly small molluscs and earthworms but they will also take insect larvae and other small invertebrates. The majority of the larvae life is passed in the sixth, and final, instar; this is reached by late summer, this stage is cold-tolerant and will last until the spring when pupation occurs in a cell within the soil. Adults will be found by sweeping low foliage and flowers generally, they usually occur in small numbers and they can be quite solitary insects although numbers may suddenly appear on hawthorn blossom when it opens in May, and they can be locally abundant on oilseed rape flowers in early summer.

10.0-14.0 mm. Among the larger of our pale species, with experience it may be recognized in the field from size and general colour but the form of the elytral pubescence, which consists of dense pale hairs that are all the same length, should be borne in mind. Body orange or pale brown except for a dark mark on both the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the head. Antennae dark with two or three basal segments and the base of the next few segments pale. Legs pale except for the mid-femora which are which may be darkened towards the apex, and the hind tibiae and apical third (at least) of the hind femora black. The form with dark elytra is rare in the UK but should be obvious due to the elytral pubescence and colour; the oval dark mark on the vertex combined with red front legs and extensively darkened hind femoral apices is unique among our fauna.