Spondylidinae

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Spondylidinae
Arhopalus ferus (Mulsant, 1839) ♀
Arhopalus ferus (Mulsant, 1839) ♀
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Superfamily: Chrysomeloidea
Family: Cerambycidae
Subfamily: Spondylidinae
Audinet-Serville, 1832 [1]
Tribus
  • Anisarthronini
  • Asemini
  • Atimiini
  • Saphanini
  • Spondylidini

Spondylidinae (AUDINET-SERVILLE, 1832) are a small subfamily of Coleoptera Cerambycidae including not much than one hundred of species especially widespread in the coniferous forests of the Boreal hemisphere.
Few species have colonised the coniferous forests of tropical and subtropical areas (Mexico, Cuba), while very few genera (Zamium) are present in Austral Africa and Madagascar (Masatopus).

Contents

[edit] Morphology

[edit] Adult

Spondylidinae are insects characterised by cerambycoid aspect, generally with more or less flattened, dark body, oblique head and scarcely developed antennae.
The sexual dimorphism is scarcely developed, that is males and females are scarcely distinguishable between them.
Differently from Cerambycinae, they have a divided stridulatory area.

[edit] Larva

The larvae are completely different from those of Cerambycinae and similar to those of Lepturinae under several aspects, being characterised by rounded head and large labrum.
Moreover, they are typically characterised by two approached small spines on the last abdominal segment.


[edit] Biology

[edit] Adult

Spondylidinae are nearly all nocturnal or crepuscolar. The only genus Tetropium, characterised by finely faceted eyes, has diurnal activity.
The adults live on the host plants, taking refuge under barks or trunks during the inactivity periods.

[edit] Larva

Except for some Saphanini (Saphanus, Drymochares) and Anisarthronini, the larva of most of species attacks woods of conifers.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] History

Spondylidinae had a complicated systematic history, not completely accepted by all specialists yet.
Already in 1897 Xambeu[2] united the genera Spondylis, Asemum, Chriocephalus (today Arhopalus) and Tetropium in Spondyliens, on the basis of the larval morphology. Nevertheless, such classification was accepted by none of the contemporaneous authors since Spondylis looked related with Prioninae through Parandra[3].
At that time most genera were placed within the subfamily Aseminae. The study of the wing morphology[4] confirmed Xambeu's setting, but already at the end of the 20th Century (and in some contemporaneous faunas) Spondylidini were deemed as separated subfamily.
Only since 1987[5], after further studies on the larval morphology, considering Spondylidini as a separated subfamily was considered as a systematic mistake.
Spondylidini - whose larva is undistinguishable from that of all other Aseminae - result to be simply Asemini, strongly evolved according the same schema adopted by many lucaniform Prioninae and the Vesperidae of the Amazonian genus Migdolus.

[edit] Current systematics

Spondylidinae (whose name has priority on Aseminae) includes five tribus. Only four are present in Europe and North America:

  • Saphanini Gistel, 1856 (Europe and North America)
  • Asemini Thomson, 1860 (Europe and North America)
  • Anisarthronini Paulian & Villiers, 1941 (Europe)
  • Spondylidini Audinet-Serville, 1832 (Europe and North America)
  • Atimiini LeConte, 1873 (North America)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Spondylidinae (TSN 678790). Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
  2. ^ Xambeu F., 1897-1902. Moeurs et métamorphoses des insectes, 8e Mémoire, Longicornes . L'echange (pagination spéciale) 151-209: 220 pp. + 1 Tab.
  3. ^ Lameere A., 1913. Cerambycidae: Prioninae. Coleopterorum Catalogus 52, S. Schenkling, Berlin, 108 pp.
  4. ^ Saalas U., 1936. Über das Flügelgeäder und die phylogenetische Entwicklung der Cerambyciden. Annales Zoologici Societatis Zoologicae-Botanicae Fennicae Vanamo 4 (1): 1-193.
  5. ^ Svácha P. & Danilevsky M. L., 1987. Cerambycoid larvae of Europe and Soviet Union (Coleoptera Cerambycoidea). Part Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Biologica 30: 1-176.

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