Featured speciesText © K. Reißmann, T. Hörren, M. Stern, F. Bötzl and C. Benisch
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10.09.2021
Cephennium gallicum Ganglb., 1899
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The only 1.2 to 1.3 mm large antlike stone beetle Cephennium gallicum (family Scydmaenidae) is one of four representatives of the genus in Germany. Worldwide more than 100 Cephennium species have been described, mostly from the Palearctic. The eurytopic, hygrophilous and silvicolous Cephennium gallicum occurs in North and Central Europe and has been introduced to North America (Nova Scotia, Canada). It prefers floodplain and other wet forests, alder cars, swamps and bogs as habitat. The tiny beetles can be found in moss, under rotten leaf litter and brushwood as well as in the humus layer at foots of trees. They are specialized predators of moss mites (Oribatida). With their mandibles they are able to cut the hard exoskeleton on the mites open. In Germany, the species is missing in the North and the East, but is not endangered. (CB)
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