Anisodactylus?? - Calathus

Calathus ruficollis

With the pectine tarsal claws showing that it is Calathus, the only species thats seems to show up in my area, and it looks like its the nominate, C. ruficollis is my guess

… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 21 December, 2007 - 12:48am

We're on right track with Calathus

but see how misleading the second habitus photo is concerning overall shape of pronotum. There is now a different perspective of the pronotum which is bent down somewhat. If you had shown that one first I would not have initially guessed Calathus. This underscores importance of directly overhead perpendicular photo shots which is most important for the pronotum!

… Peter Messer, 21 December, 2007 - 9:27am

Once this specimen dries, it

Once this specimen dries, it will have the head parallel to the elytra and I'll do one more image stack series, hopefully with better lighting so I can focus better. I'm going to try and start spreading my specimens so they look better

… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 21 December, 2007 - 9:42am

I'm unfamiliar with the CA carabid fauna

but the habitus does strike me as being more like Calathus or some other platynine. With a strong scope can you see any tiny denticulate (toothed) projections on undersides of tarsal claws that would support such a guess?

… Peter Messer, 20 December, 2007 - 10:15pm

Appears that Calathus is in H

Appears that Calathus is in Harpalinae though

… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 21 December, 2007 - 12:18am

Oops

I meant Harpalini tribe not the whole subfamily. Sorry. Fixed my comment below.

… Brad Barnd, 21 December, 2007 - 12:32am

I'm too tired

I'm too tired to get it set up tonight, but I'll take another photo series tomorrow and look for pectinate tarsal claws. In general though, it looks like a perfect match in overall appearance to Calathus

… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 21 December, 2007 - 12:17am

Agreed.

When I enlarge this photo, it seems that there are two setae above each eye (I think I see two over the bottom eye). This would exclude the Harpalini.

… Brad Barnd, 20 December, 2007 - 11:05pm

photo enlargement?

Do contributing editors, which I'm not, get access to significantly larger images without sacrificing resolution? If true, then I might want to become one for the simple (selfish) reason to acquire better images of carabid species less familiar to me.

… Peter Messer, 21 December, 2007 - 10:14am

Yes

editors get to see the image that was uploaded, not the resized one displayed for everyone else

… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 21 December, 2007 - 7:18pm