Sorry Will, this is not L. capreolus.! It is a male L. placidus. This should be apparent from the form of the mandibles and the lack of lighter colored femora (the legs of L. placidus are uniformly dark).

Cheers
MJ

Hi Matt, hope all is well. Thanks for confirming my L. placidus ID.


Steven

See my previous post http://bugguide.net/node/view/108783. One just like this one was IDed as a female.

this is going to sound ridiculous but that is also a male, compare a male and a female. a female should look like the one on this page: http://bugguide.net/node/view/27330

Ok....I'm certainly in no position as far as training and/or entomological education to say either way and I'm not disputing either ID. But, how do I determine which is correct....how do I know who to believe when two people who are supposed to "be in the know" give me two different answers ?

I concur that both are males. As for your question, you have to just have to hope that the "commenter" is correct. You can also click on the person's name and read their bio (if they have one) to see their interests and expertise.

I think this is a male, but I think this is placidus, not capreolus. For one thing, look at mandible placement and shape compared to this:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/61335/bgimage

... plus: overall coloration, lack of "orange" on femurs, shape of head and shape of thorax.