Spanish fly - Lytta vesicatoria L.
A metallic green beetle measuring 12–20 mm in length, with two orange longitudinal stripes. The body is covered in short, sparse hairs. The antennae are long and thread-like. The mouthparts of the Spanish fly, like those of all other representatives of beetles, are typically chewing.
It develops in one generation and exhibits hypermetamorphosis. Beetles appear in the second half of May and can be found in June and July. The flight and feeding period lasts 50–60 days. The presence of beetles can be detected from a distance by the bare parts of the crown (only the central and part of the lateral veins remain from the leaf) and by the specific smell of cantharidin.
During the day, the beetles actively feed on the leaves of various trees and shrubs, preferring ash, honeysuckle, lilac, and privet, and less frequently damaging elder, maple, and poplar.
After 15–30 days of feeding, they reach sexual maturity, mate, and 10–15 days later, the females lay eggs in the ground in clusters at a depth of 3–5 cm. The egg-laying period lasts 15–20 days, during which one female can lay up to several thousand eggs. Larvae (triungulins) emerge 10–12 days after the eggs are laid, crawling onto flowers and waiting there for insects; they attack solitary bees and, attaching themselves to them, are carried into their nests, where they feed on the supplies collected by the bees for their larvae, and later on the larvae themselves. In the fall, triungulins leave the bee nests and burrow into the soil to a depth of 5–8 cm, where they transform into false pupae that hibernate. In spring, they turn into third-instar larvae, which move to the surface layer of the soil, where they transform into pupae, from which adult insects emerge.
They fly from May to July.
Dried Spanish flies are currently used in many European countries to prepare a suppurative plaster, as well as to treat certain diseases of the urogenital system.
Distribution: Northern Tien Shan
Insects of Kyrgyzstan
