I have been asked by a South African student who is currently working on beetle body size patterns (body length) of the family Cerambycidae, what is the smallest and the largest species found in Eurasia. Does anybody have that information? I've done some research regarding the whole Old World and found 2 species from the Fiji Islands that might be the smallest and largest Cerambycidae outside America. For the smallest, species belonging to Oloessa genus. The lower limit is 1.7mm for both Oloessa bianor Dillon & Dillon, 1952 and Oloessa cenea Dillon & Dillon, 1952. The largest would be Xixutrus heros (Gräffe, 1868) (140-150mm). But the Fiji Islands are not in Eurasia.
In palaearktic region I see a smallest species: Gracilia minuta 2.5-7 mm Tetrops praeusta – 3.1 mm-5.8 mm Microlera ptinoides Bates, 1873 (Apomecynini) – 3.5-4.0 mm.
I was also on this page when I made my search. It says that Decarthria stephensii from Guadeloupe can go as small as 1,5 mm. I havent seen any measurement smaller than this so far.
Thanks for giving the data for the Palaearctic region, thats interesting.
Cerambycidae size range
Posted - 20/07/2014 : 08:46:09
