Specimen photographed in Rodheim (Hessen) on April 15, 2018.
Subspecies
No information has been entered yet.
Synonyms
Oxytelus insecatus Gravenhorst, 1806
Styloxis insecatus (Gravenhorst, 1806)
Anotylus insecatus (Gravenhorst, 1806)
Styloxis insecatus (Gravenhorst, 1806)
Anotylus insecatus (Gravenhorst, 1806)
Identification
Body length 4 to 5 mm. Clypeus shiny and only sparsely punctated. Head,
prothoracic shield and abdomen black or black-brown. Antennae dark
brown. Elytra mostly orange-brown, but proximally black or dark brown.
Legs orange brown, femur usually darker dorsally.
Distribution
Occurs in the UK, through Central and eastern Europe, the southern
portions of northern Europe, and eastward to the Ukraine. Not a common
species in Germany. It has been accidentally introduced in North America, probably with imported plant products (Campbell and Tomlin 1983; Webster et al. 2012).
Biology
This species prefers sun-exposed slopes, usually on chalky soil. Imagines can be found from April to June. The
biology of the species is unclear: larvae and imagines are frequently
associated with decomposing plant material (saprophilic) on the ground and also underground (e.g. rotting roots), where they are
believed to hunt for dipteran larvae (discussed in Campbell and Tomlin 1983). It is unclear if there is a special predator-prey relationship
between Anotylus insecatus and diperan pest species feeding on the bulbs of onions, tulips and radishes. Majka and Klimaszewski (2008)
report that they have found A. insecatus imagines hunting for fly
maggots (genus Delia) within the tunnels these maggots bore into
the roots of radish (Raphanus sativus).