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Rosalia alpina

Rosalia alpina

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Family: Cerambycidae
Order: Coleoptera
Class: Insecta
Phylum / Division: Arthropoda
Kingdom: Animalia

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Description


The rosalia longicorn (Rosalia alpina) or alpine longhorn beetle is a large longicorn (family Cerambycidae) that is distinguished by its distinctive markings. The beetle lives in beech forests with sun exposure and clearings.

Classification: The species was first described as Cerambyx alpinus by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 work Fauna Svecica. The description was written based on a specimen collected more than fifty years earlier by another scientist in the Swiss Alps. Linnaeus wrote that it was found in Scania and Blekinge.

 The rosalia longicorn is 15 to long. The antennae can be up to twice as long as the rest of the body in males, and the same length in females. The elytra are flat, blue-gray, with variable black spots, including a prominent one on the thorax, a silky one in front, and a small one in back. Both the antennae and the legs have the same coloration as the body. The coloration serves as good camouflage with their preferred habitat, the European Beech.

They are distributed from Cantabrian Mountains east to Caucasus. Its numbers across Europe has greatly depleted in recent years, and it is a protected species in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Serbia, and Slovakia. Rosalia longicorn is depicted in the logo of Danube-Ipoly National Park in Hungary.

The adults are active from June to September. By day the beetles sit near flowers and feed on the pollen. They are able to make a chirping sound by scraping their rear legs and elytra together. After mating, the female lays the eggs within a crack in the bark of beech trees. The larva eats the bark and pupates there as well when it has reached about three years of age. The mature adult emerges from the pupa and then have a further lifespan of three to six weeks.

Source: Wikipedia, article Rosalia alpina. Content adapted from Wikipedia, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Accessed on 17/07/2026.





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Species photographs

Count: 1

Foto
Photography ID: 312824
  Adult

Valle de Aran
Lérida
Spain
07/21/2010
Francisco Javier Martín Pérez


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Species records

Count: 1



Page 1 of 1
Record IDDateExact timeCountryProvince / departmentPlaceFilmedPhotographedRecorded vocalObservedHeardWounded or deadNumber of individualsUser or BibliographyDetail
87517621/07/2010SpainLéridaLes, Valle de AranFrancisco Javier Martín Pérez
Page 1 of 1

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Recommended citation
Please use the following reference when citing this species account.
EcoRegistros. 2026. Rosalia alpina – Species account. Accessed from www.ecoregistros.org on 15/09/2026.