Anaspis regimbarti Schilsky, 1895
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POLYPHAGA Emery, 1886
TENEBRIONOIDEA Latreille, 1802
ANASPIDINAE Mulsant, 1856
Anaspis Geoffroy, 1762
This species has a rather restricted western Palaearctic distribution; it is recorded from Algeria but otherwise occurs in Europe from Spain to Italy and Switzerland and north to the UK, Poland and some southern provinces of Sweden, and despite this restricted distribution it is locally common through lowlands and lower mountain altitudes throughout this range. In the UK it is generally common throughout Wales and England north to the Humber, more local and scarce further north to southern Scotland and there are a few scattered records further north into the Highlands, it is widespread in Northern Ireland and occurs on Anglesey, Man and the Isle of Wight. Adults occur from April until July or August, they frequent flowers in open deciduous woodland or wooded parkland and may be common along hedgerows or in domestic gardens, they usually appear first on hawthorn blossom and umbels but are soon common on a wide range of flowers. Little is known of the biology but in Denmark larvae have been found under the bark of moderately decayed oak (Quercus L.) and elm (Ulmus L.), and in the UK the species has been reared from decaying oak logs and branches and larvae have also been recorded from larch (Larix Mill.). Larvae are thought to be detritivores while adults have been observed feeding on nectar and pollen. Adults are easily sampled by day or night by tapping umbels or blossom into a net, they usually occur in numbers but often among numbers of other members of the genus and so will need to be taken for examination, they fly well and disperse in warm weather and so by early summer might be found on flowers in any situation, they are often common in flight-interception traps and may occur in numbers in yellow pan traps.
 Anaspis regimbarti 1 |
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 Anaspis regimbarti 2 |
2.6-3.8 mm. Entirely black but for the pronotum and head in front of the eyes which are orange although the pronotum may be entirely or partly darker and in var. fraudulenta Joy, 1912 the entire body is black or dark brown, ventral surface always entirely black, legs orange with the tips of the femora, tibiae and tarsal segments darkened, palps orange, often with the apex darkened, antennae black with several basal segments and sometimes the apex of the terminal segment orange. Dorsal surface with strong transverse microsculpture and fine recumbent pale pubescence. Head hypognathous with an abrupt occipital crest, smoothly convex with eyes continuous with the outline, terminal maxillary palpomere securiform. Antennae filiform and slightly thickened from segment five or six, segments one to four slender and of similar width and five to ten distinctly elongate. Pronotum transverse and more-or-less smoothly rounded from obtuse posterior angles, smoothly convex and without structure, basal margin sinuate. Elytra as wide across the base as the base of the pronotum, slightly widened about the middle and separately curved apically, pubescence in the sutural interstice finer and darker than on the adjacent intervals, this is sometimes subtle and may need to be looked for very carefully with light from several directions, epipleura gradually narrowed from the base to about the level of the third sternite. Legs long and slender with the inner margin of all tibiae straight. Males are easily distinguished by having two patches of fine dense pubescence on the seventh tergite and two strongly curved and closely placed appendages on the apical margin of the third abdominal sternite.