Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 32-34. (2014)
Zoology
New data on Larval development and spread of the species Callergates gaillardoti, Chevrolat, 1854 Some of the larvae left the wood and dug galleries at the bottom of the stump, continuing to develop there. Two months later the first adult, a male, appeared (Fig. 4). In order to create natural conditions, during winter the containers were kept at low temperatures, even below the freezing point, when the larval development stopped. The following year, in 2012, three insects came out, a male and two females, in the interval between early May and late July. One of the stumps has produced three adults and the other one, just one adult. Each adult has gone through a separate gallery, removing the bark cover. Three of the larvae produced no adults and died or the adults were not able to leave the pupal chambers. The first stump had only one emergence gallery, and the second one, three galleries. As the first stump was in a very advanced stage of decay, in mid-March 2014, we analyzed only the second stump. The latter presented three emerging galleries, elongated oval in shape (Fig. 5), with dimensions of 5.5 cm long /1.2 cm wide and 5.5 cm long / 2 cm wide. The third was 4 cm long and 2 cm wide. The gallery exit had the sides parallel to the trunk axis, in all the three cases. Later on, after splitting the trunk, it was found that the three pupal chambers were located within the bark, right on the edge of the trunk core, which left untouched. The oval pupal chambers contained very fine sawdust and scrap droppings at the base, up to 10 cm thick, wellpressed, over which there was a layer of coarse sawdust made of bark chips broken by the larvae before turning into pupae (Fig. 6). A tunnel 8-10 cm long led from the pupal chamber to the trunk outlet of the gallery. Results and discussions Four specimens of Callergates gaillardoti were obtained from eight larvae collected from natural forests of Pinus brutia, in the Troodos Mountains, Cyprus. Our success ratio was 50%. Adult size was between 60-62 mm, which was the maximum length between the mandible tips and antennae tips. It turned out that large Coleoptera Cerambycidae can be obtained, too, under laboratory conditions, if certain measures are observed, concerning the faithful reproduction of natural conditions, i.e. similar sublayer — rotten coniferous wood-related species, pine wood. Providing low humidity and a midwinter diapause by placing the containers in cold climate is very important. By faithfully reproducing the natural development conditions, adult palearctic and tropical coleoptera species most difficult to collect, such as scarabaeide, buprestidae, cerambycidae were obtained, to mention just the most important ones. Callergates gaillardoti cerambycide is considered a representative species for the Eastern Mediterranean area, one of the largest palearctic species, the adults reaching a length of 6.5 cm and therefore a bio-indicator species for natural old conifer forest habitats, especially pine wood forests. The rarity of the species and the success in obtaining these four specimens, which are unique in the Romanian collections, is a great entomological achievement. The author wishes to thank Mr. Erodotos Kaouris Bsc (Hons) from the Forest Management Msc. Biodiversity Conservation & Management, Cyprus, for the information on forest habitats of the Troodos Mountains, as well as for the necessary steps he took for us to obtain a permit to collect insects. 141
