Leiopus linnei

Leiopus nebulosus sensu lato used to be known as Black-clouded Longhorn Beetle, but since it has now been split into two species (Leiopus nebulosus sensu stricto and Leiopus linnei) I'm not sure what happens with the vernacular names. Wallin et al.* is a the paper where linnei is described and is a really useful resource for identifying this species pair.

* Wallin et al. (2009). Two sibling species of Leiopus Audinet-Serville, 1835 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) from Europe: L. nebulosus (Linnaeus, 1758) and L. linnei sp. nov. Zootaxa 2010: 31– 45. Accessed here.

This one was found by sweeping vegetation beneath an oak tree. I had found my first Leiopus quite difficult to identify but eventually settled on Leiopus nebulosus. Compared to that, this one had much more obvious dark spots on the pronotum and, although I'm still unclear as to exactly where you're meant to measure it, the frons was wider (in range, if I'm measuring it in the right place, for linnei and wide for nebulosus). The punctures on the pronotum, denser at the middle, were also stronger than on the previous one, so before examining the genitalia I had a pretty good idea that it would turn out to be the other one, linnei. The apical sternite hairs supported this ID as did the shape of the spermatheca, clearly widened at the base.

female Leiopus linnei showing close-ups of pronotum, frons, sternite 7 and spermatheca, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 4th July 2024