Abstract
Natural history observations were made, during August–September 2021, on a population of the ecologically poorly known Vesperus luridus (Cerambycidae) at a hilly locality of Latium, Central Italy. These beetles were searched for by night along a 170 m long transect, with the help of hand torches. During the field surveys, we recorded a total of 130 individuals, of which 128 were males and 2 females. All individuals were observed between 21 h 45 and 01 h 15, with above-ground activity peaking from 22 h 45 to 23 h 45. The minimum observed density per day showed a rapid increase to a peak at the end of August, followed by a slower decrease in the following two weeks. Mean male density was 0.32 individuals per transect m2, whereas only two females were observed (mean density = 0.006 individuals per transect m2). Most individuals were found on trees, and they appeared to be highly attracted to artificial lights. One female, situated on a tree at a height of 170 cm, was surrounded by five courting males.
Highlights
Vesperus (Dejean, 1821) is the only genus of the tribe Vesperini (Mulsant, 1839), which is in turn one of the two tribes of the Vesperinae subfamily [1,2]
We report preliminary field observations on the natural history of a single population of Vesperus luridus from a hilly area of central Italy, focusing on adult sex ratio, density, body size and activity patterns
Our data suggest that the activity period of adult Vesperus luridus extends for about three weeks from the second half of August to the first half of September, which is a similar-length period of activity to that observed in Sardinian Vesperus macropterus [4]
Summary
Vesperus (Dejean, 1821) is the only genus of the tribe Vesperini (Mulsant, 1839), which is in turn one of the two tribes of the Vesperinae subfamily [1,2]. Vesperus has a circumMediterranean distribution and has been carefully studied from a taxonomic point of view [3], whereas ecological data remains scarce for all species in the genus [4,5] Ecologically speaking, these species are very interesting, with pronounced sexual size dimorphism and especially with remarkable intersexual ecological divergence; in all species apart from Vesperus macropterus, the females are brachypterous and are unable to fly. They spend most of their adult life underground, whereas the smaller males fly well and tend to climb trees and actively disperse.
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