Forum Entomologi Italiani

veramente piccine da mm 1.5 a 2.0

sotto pietra

A member of the genus Plagiolepis. In Mediterranean area two common species: P. pygmaea and P. vindobonensis, one quite rare P. maura + few forms of unclear taxonomic position ant two parasitic species. On photo is probably one of the first two species. They are well diagnostic by structure of antennae. In P. pygmaea third antennomere is only slightly longer than second and distinctly shorter than fourth, while in P. vindobonensis third antennomere is distinctly longer than second and only slightly shorter than fourth.

Can you read the anthennas of those ones?
luigi

It looks like the third species - P. pallescens (sometimes treated as form of P. maura). Workers on photos have on first tergite dense vestiture (if it is not artifct depending from quality of photo) characteristic for this taxon while in P. pygmaea and P. vindobonensis first tergite is sparsely pubescent and with mirror brilliance.

thanks
luigi

Grazie Lech per tutte le determinazioni... la prossima domenica fotografo le antenne.. magari riusciamo ad arrivare alla specie.

Grazie anche a te Luigi, anche se con le tue fotografie mi fai sfigurare....

Grazie, ma queste erano fatte a luce naturale col sole radente .........e si muovevano anche ...

Le ho postate solo come integrazione: giusto se uno le voleva riconoscere trovandole in ambiente
luigi

Grazie a Lech che ha potuto osservare de visu l'esemplare (il mio non quello di elleelle); possiamo ora rinominare come
Plagiolepis pygmea (Latreille, 1798)