Tetrops Stephens, 1829

This is the more common and widespread of the 2 species present in the U.K. It is distributed throughout England north to Cumbria although records are more scattered in the west and it is absent from much of Wales. The only island records seem to be from The Isle Of Wight. On the continent it is a widespread native occurring throughout Europe north to Southern Scandinavia and east through Russia to Mongolia. There are 3 subspecies; T. p. algiricus Chobaut, 1893 from Algeria, T. p. anatolicus Ozdikmen & Turgut, 2008 from Turkey and the widespread typical form. The species was introduced to North America and it is now widespread through the northern U.S.A. and Canada. In the U.K. adults occur from April or May to September depending upon the year. The typical habitat is wooded margins or clearings and parkland where they are active among shrubs and low vegetation e.g. honeysuckle, viburnum and blackberry etc. and they may be seen in flight around host trees or nibbling leaves and sometimes on umbel flowers or blossom etc. during warm weather. The eggs are laid singly among the bark on dead or damaged twigs and small branches of a wide range of hosts including oak, rowan, lime, elm, apple, hawthorne and ash etc. but the preferred host seems to be Pyrus malus. Newly hatched larvae feed initially within the bark before moving underneath and producing spiral-shaped galleries. Pupation occurs in early spring, or is sometimes delayed, in the outer layers of the xylem or under the bark and the adults eclose in the spring. The life-cycle is usually completed within a year but may occasionally take two.

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Without experience this small and distinctively coloured species may be mistaken for a cantharid but the short legs and robust antennae should be decisive, the only real confusion should be with our other species, T. starkii, see below. 3-6 mm. Black with the front legs entirely, and all tibiae, yellow. The elytra are yellow with the apical region darkened (viewed under u.v. light the dark area turns a vivid metallic blue!) The entire body has long, pale setae-like pubescence, the lateral margins of the pronotum also with dense short, white pubescence which can be very difficult to see. The head is relatively large, transverse and deflexed, the vertex and frons sparsely and finely punctured. Antennae robust; reaching the elytral apex in the male and obviously shorter in the female. The pronotum is parallel and constricted in the basal third, the surface and the lateral margins uneven. All margins smooth, without teeth or projections. Slightly elongate in the male and slightly transverse in the female.  Elytra subparallel and weakly constricted medially, with well-developed shoulders; much broader than the pronotal base, the surface with wide and shallow, random punctures. The apical margin is obliquely truncate with both angles rounded. Anterior tibiae of the male are more slender when compared to the female.