Purpuricenus desfontainii

Size: 12-19 mm.
Host plant: Quercus ilex, Ceratonia silica, Zyzyphus sp. Pistacia lentiscus in Cyrenaica.
Life cycle: adults in April-July on thisthles flowers.
Distribution: North Africa and the most part of the eastern Mediterranean with two subspecies: P. desfontainii s.str., which occurs throughout the Maghreb from Morocco to Libya and, as an isolated population, in the isle of Crete (Greece); the ssp. inhumeralis Pic, 1891, occurring from Greece (including Peloponnese) to Turkey and the Near East to Israel.
Libya: Cyrenaica.

Al Qubbah, 28/06/2003; Qandulah, 05/05/2004; R'as el Hilal, 29/05/2004. Taknis, 26/05/2005, P. Weill Leg. Al Qubbah, 25/05/2005, P. Weill Leg.
Larvae collected in dead and dying twig of Pistacia lentiscus, 2-4 cm in diameter.