
Lagria hirta - Larva
Quick & dirty collage I just created for a discussion on ID-ing characters for both our Lagria species (hirta and atripes). Going by the key in Klausnitzer (1996) and comparing to the excellent photos by Artem Zaitsev, I'm confident that this should be Lagria hirta, but it should be noted that I have not found any images for the larva of L. atripes for comparison.
The total habitus with the long hairs, short closely spaced urogomphi and especially the relatively long antennae (for a larva) with very long 2nd segment and reduced third segment make this a Lagriinae, with only two species in Central Europe.
Klausnitzer separates the two based on the urogomphi as follows:
Lagria hirta: Urogomphi sharply pointed and spread wider apart toward the tips (seen from above)
Lagria atripes: Urogomphi dull and sub-parallel (seen from above)
Even on the drawings provided (only for hirta) in the very same key, I cannot see the urogomphi as "spreading apart toward the tip" - that is, if I go by the centre line. Of course, with the urogomphi being pointed they will naturally be closer together at the base, so maybe that is what Klausnitzer is trying to convey(?)
Additionally, I have not been able to find a single image of a Lagria larva where the urogomphi (if visible at all) are _not_ sharply pointed, so I have no reference to compare the supposed "blunt" shape of Lagria atripes to.
We will need to find more of these larvae and get adults of them in order to (hopefully) document an atripes larva as well one day...
References:
Bernhard Klausnitzer (1996) Die Larven der Käfer Mitteleuropas, Band 3, Polyphaga Teil 2
Photo by Artem Zaitsev: https://www.flickr.com/photos/25258027@N02/3212882949
Discussion on wrn: https://forum.waarneming.nl/smf/index.php?topic=462308.msg2368678#msg2368678
comments (6)
1) the person claiming Hemiptera is correct of course
2) it being Coleoptera is correct of course (and the claim is silly/bogus)
Me having a lot of respect for you, will have me read it as option 2 :o)
Cheers, Arp Posted 5 years ago
...corrected that one already. Posted 5 years ago, modified 5 years ago