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Photo#1311649
Anisodactylus rusticus  - Anisodactylus rusticus - male

Anisodactylus rusticus - Anisodactylus rusticus - Male
SCBI, Warren County, Virginia, USA
The species of Gynandrotarsus are tough; as usual, the male parts are very useful in clinching an ID. In the case of rusticus, only the tip needs to be seen, and it's usually conveniently peeking out. Among externally similar species in the subgenus, rusticus is distinctive in having a median lobe that lacks an apical disc at the apex; I'm trying to show here the smooth, flat surface of the apex.

Very distinctive
Thanks Thrasher! As per usual, a very instructive photo.

It gives me much more certainty in my Anisodactylus merula determinations considering that not a single one of the dozens of specimens have a humeral tooth.

 
humeral tooth
very cool! For others who might be reading this, I'll put here what I said in the email to you earlier- we catch toothless merula up here in VA as well. Not dozens of them, but consistently lacking the tooth.
Seems like something worth looking into more closely.

 
Agreed
It renders Noonan's key to females misleading unfortunately, at least for us in the Southeast. A wider study into the presence of a humeral tooth of Anisodactylus merula and rusticus across the U.S. would be pretty interesting.

I currently only feel comfortable separating females of the two by plot-specific association with positively identified males.

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