I agree with Vassili that it certainly looks like an excellent match for Aphricus, but I'm not certain that we can specify species from the picture. The type locality for A. tenuis is the Pinal Mtns of Arizona, and that is a fair distance from Death Valley. I also noted that this specimen seems to have a small tooth at the anterior corners of the pronotum that I don't see in A. tenuis. Also the type specimen of A. tenuis is around 8 mm.

these guys should be pretty good fliers -- and i know nothing about their specific ranges, of course

There's just a lot of desert between the 5000' elevation around Globe, AZ and Death Valley, CA. I suspect this is a closely related, but different species.

It does look very much like the Aphricus tenuis at MCZ. The SBMNH California Beetle Project site lists only one Aphricus in California, Aphricus californicus, but the beetle in my photos doesn't look like that one at MCZ. So I'm a bit baffled.

I moved the images to a new genus page for now...