Tiny Beetle - Cybocephalus nipponicus

Concurrence, sort of...

From Russia's Nitidulid specialist A.G. Kirejtshuk:

"It is certainly Cybocephalus and very probably the
male. Could be C. nipponicus, but also many other
species...

"regards,
A.G. Kirejtshuk"

I've indicated it's a male since we have two specialists who suggest that gender.

… Jim McClarin, 24 February, 2006 - 8:03pm

Cybocephalus nipponicus

Trevor Smith has provided the species name for this tiny cybocephalid:

"As long as the label data is correct and the cybocephalid in the picture was collected in the U.S.A., then it is Cybocephalus nipponicus Endrödy-Younga. This particular species is the only adventive cybocephalid known to occur in the U.S. This is also the only species in the U.S. that is sexually dimorphic. The males have a yellow to light brown head and pronotum or sometimes just a light brown head. This beetle was recently released in Florida to combat the cycad aulacaspis scale although it was misidentified at the time as Cybocephalus binotatus Grouvelle. These beetles can be found from Massachusetts to Florida and west to Texas. I have a complete North American (excluding Mexico) revision of this family including host data and geographic range coming out in a couple of months in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America..."

btw, Andy Cline wrote of this group, "They are certainly not nitidulids but for convenience are still placed there. My analysis puts them close to coccinellids near the cerylonid series of Cucujoidea."

… Jim McClarin, 22 February, 2006 - 3:37pm

Jim,

Would you mind placing this in it's proper place on bugguide. I think you'll do a better job than I will.

… Lynette Elliott, 22 February, 2006 - 3:54pm

but mind you, it might be moved to its own family soon.

… Jim McClarin, 22 February, 2006 - 4:02pm

Coccinellidae

I think this is one of the small Coccinellids.

… Donald S. Chandler, 18 February, 2006 - 8:16am

googled

and found these two listed as tiny lady beetles that are uniformly black. Scymnus auritus and Stethorus punctillum. Punctillum can be seen here(I don't think it matches) and I couldn't find any photos of auritus.

… Lynette Elliott, 18 February, 2006 - 9:04am

Scymnus

Here is a link to other Scymnus sp.

I must admit I was thinking of something like a minute beetle, Clambus sp. There is an info page here that has an illustration link to Clambus at the very bottom.

… Lynette Elliott, 18 February, 2006 - 9:18am

Coccinellidae: Sticholotodinae?: Delphastus like coccinellid?

If you google Delphastus a few species pop up, of which D. pusillus looks like this photo. This species is released in greenhouses for whitefly control.However, the Sticholotodinae holds a few small genera with very small species that have glabrous dorsums. I won't pretend to be able to recognize the genera in this subfamily, but D. pusillus does look suspicious. If so, this is by far the best picture of this species on the web.

Clambus has the elytra covered with sparse short setae, and doesn't quite look like this.

… Donald S. Chandler, 18 February, 2006 - 10:37pm

D. pusillus

You are right it does look like D. pusillus. I found a good match here.

… Lynette Elliott, 19 February, 2006 - 7:16am

Hold on. Head here is 7/9ths width of body.

Head on your link is approximately half width of body. The one on the link *looks* like a coccinellid, but this one dosen't have that familiar coccinellid appearance.

… Jim McClarin, 19 February, 2006 - 7:58am

I agree

I saw in some of the other angles that the beetle looks wider than mine, but could this be something in the same genus?

… Lynette Elliott, 19 February, 2006 - 8:50am