| Rustic Sailor Beetle (Cantharis rustica (Fallén, 1807)) |
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Scientific name: Cantharis rustica (Fallén, 1807) Common name: Rustic Sailor Beetle French name: Téléphore moine, Moine, Cantharide campagnarde. Order: Coleoptera Family: Cantharidae Wingspan : 9 to 12.5 mm. Biotope: Clearings, woodland edges, flower meadows. Geographic area: All Europe. Observation period : May to August. |
Cantharidae are insects with a lengthy body, rather soft elytra and long antennae of 11 articles. The Rustic Sailor Beetle has shiny black elytra covered with very short hairs. The pronotum is reddish with a central black patch. The antennae are reddish near the base and black at the tip. The femora show red areas. The Rustic Sailor Beetle is often observed on umbelliferae flowers where it feeds on small insects. The larvae, which live on the ground and over winter, feed on snails, slugs and insects. Cantharis fusca differs from the Rustic Sailor Beetle by completely black femora and by the square-shaped black patch reaching the fore edge of the pronotum. |
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You can guess the black patch at the centre of the pronotum. The femora show red areas. So this confirms the Rustic Sailor Beetle species. If these Sailors Beetles go on mating on the picnic table we will go a little further and have picnic down on the grass ... |
André Bon October 2012