Opilo domesticus (Sturm, 1983)

Chapman, Eric G., Leavengood, John M. & Dupuis, Julian R., 2025, The Cleridae and Thanerocleridae of eastern North America, with illustrated keys, updated distributions, and special emphasis on the Kentucky fauna, Zootaxa 5639 (1), pp. 1-88 : 51

Opilo domesticus (Sturm, 1983) ; Cleridae : Clerinae : Opilonini Gistel

Illustrations: Plate 3-I. Key to clerid genera, couplet 15-A, couplet 16-A, C

Distribution: Primarily European in distribution: Portugal and Morocco to Greece and north to Sweeden. Knull (1951) indicated this was an exotic species included in his Ohio monograph due to records in Pennsylvania and Canada.

Natural History: Kemner (1915) reported that the larvae feed on Anobium striatum Olivier ( Ptinidae ) in its galleries where it pupates near the wood’s surface. Steiner (1938) reported that it is an important predator of the old house borer ( Hylotrupes bajulus L.) in Germany. Schmidt (1952) reported that it is a predator of the furniture beetle Anobium punctatum (De Geer) . Popo (1983) reared it from fig ( Ficus ) trunks in what was then Yugoslavia. Le Restif (1987) reared it (as Opilo hladilorum , now a subspecies of O. domesticus ) from Pistacia sp. in Greece. Villamant and Andrei-Ruiz (1999) reported observing it feed on spongy moth ( Lymantria dispar (L.)) eggs in Morocco. It has also been associated with the oothecae of the mantid Sphodromantis viridis (Forskal) in Tunesia ( Mirzaee et al. 2022). Gobbi (1983) reported finding it on black poplar ( Populus nigra ), broom ( Cytisus sp. ), cardoon ( Cynara cardunculus ), carob ( Ceratonia siliqua ), Cyprus turpentine ( Pistacia terebinthus ), English and holm oaks ( Quercus pedunculata & Q. ilex ), field elm ( Ulmus campestris ), giant fennel ( Ferula communis ), honey locust ( Gledytschia triacanthos ), Mediterranean spurge ( Euphorbia characias ), Spanish broom ( Spartium junceum ), stone pine ( Pinus pinea ), woolly thistle ( Cirsium eriophorum ) in Italy. For further life history information, see Gerstmeier (1998).