Three specimens of Rosalia alpina are courted in the middle of the mating season, and some of them will leave „embellished” with a red or blue dot.
We capture these strictly protected insects in atraumatic flight interception traps, check them often and mark them carefully to recognize them when we recapture them at other nearby sites. All specimens return safely to nature!
The beech tailor or alpine tailor is a large beetle of the Cerambycidae family, which can be easily recognized due to its blue-velvet or bluish-gray color. The adult specimens have lengths between 14 – 40 mm, to which are added the antennae as long as the body in females and twice as long as the body in males. The beech tailor is dependent on wood with rot for reproduction. Adults and larvae live mainly on beech, occasionally on other deciduous species (maple, elm, hornbeam, linden). For reproduction, it prefers trees with mature rot, relatively isolated (sunny, in clearings) and without tall bushes around them.
The beech tailor is a species protected by the Habitats Directive (priority species, listed in Annexes II and IV) and by Emergency Ordinance no. 57/2007 on the regime of protected natural areas, conservation of natural habitats, wild flora and fauna. It is considered to have a favorable conservation status in Romania (2013-2018) but this is due to the overestimation of the area that can be occupied by this species.
