Common grammoptera

Grammoptera ruficornis · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Cerambycidae

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Common grammoptera — Photo: Cosimo Costanzia di Costigliole, CC BY

Grammoptera ruficornis is a tiny longhorn beetle, only 3 to 7 mm long, with a dark brown or black body covered in silky hairs. It lives in deciduous forests, glades and pastures, usually below 1 000 m in the Alps, and is widespread across most of Europe and parts of western Asia.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Its legs are partly yellow-red with bicoloured, bulbous femora, while the hind femora can be completely black.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Adults measure about 3 to 7 mm in length (0.12 to 0.28 in).

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

Found in deciduous forests, clearings, pastures and on old deciduous trees. In the Alps they are rarely seen above 1 000 m (3 300 ft).

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Adults feed on flowers of a variety of trees and plants such as buckthorn, beech, oak, ash, hawthorn, rowan, whitebeam, cow parsley and other Apiaceae in spring and summer. Larvae develop inside dead, fungus-infested branches of deciduous trees.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

The larval stage lasts about a year, and adults emerge from late May to mid-June. Several parasitoid wasps, such as Dolichomitus agnoscendus and Cenocoelius aartseni, are associated with this beetle.

Source: Wikipedia

When you see it

Adults are most commonly observed on flowers during spring and summer.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its range covers the Palearctic realm, including most of Europe, the Caucasus, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran.

Source: Wikipedia

Lookalikes

Parasitoid wasps (Dolichomitus agnoscendus, Ichneumonidae, Cenocoelius aartseni) are often found near these beetles.

Source: Wikipedia

Questions people ask

When can I expect to see Grammoptera ruficornis?

Adults are usually seen from late May through mid-June, especially on flowers in spring and summer.

Source: Wikipedia

What plants do the adults visit?

They feed on the flowers of buckthorn, beech, oak, ash, hawthorn, rowan, whitebeam, cow parsley and other members of the Apiaceae family.

Source: Wikipedia

Where does this beetle live?

It inhabits deciduous forests, clearings and pastures, usually below 1 000 m in the Alps, and is widespread across most of Europe and parts of western Asia.

Source: Wikipedia