Europe eastwards into western Asia; records are concentrated in temperate habitats.
Fine-art photographic collection
Anthaxia salicis
A heat-loving jewel beetle whose larvae live hidden beneath the bark of sun-baked branches.
About this species
Anthaxia salicis(Fabricius, 1776)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Anthaxia salicis is a European jewel beetle associated with warm, open woodland and woody hosts including oaks and willows. The adult is a compact metallic flower visitor; the larva is a flattened subcortical tunneller.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Buprestidae · Anthaxia
Accepted species or infraspecific taxon in the current GBIF/Catalogue of Life treatment; unsupported details have been omitted rather than inferred. · checked 2026-07-15
Europe and western AsiaBroad documented range and selected occurrence localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Woody vegetation within the documented range; buprestid larvae typically develop in stems, trunks or roots.
Adults are generally seasonal and often most active in warm sunny conditions.
Larvae of jewel beetles develop in plant tissue; exact hosts for this species require specialist sources.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Adults are strongly thermophilic and become most active on hot, sunlit wood and flowers when many other beetles retreat from the heat.
The larva feeds in the narrow cambial zone beneath bark, carving a gallery wider than its own highly flattened body.
Its apparently simple dark wing cases surround a pronotum that can flash green, bronze, red and violet as the viewing angle changes.