Beetle - family? - Atomaria ephippiata

Moved

Moved from Atomaria.

… Cotinis, 10 January, 2007 - 2:15am

Anchicera / Atomaria

Dear Brad & Tim,

I told this being Anchicera because I found is as seperate genus in Nearctica, and didn´t want to confuse anybody.
In Europe, both are considered subgenera of Atomaria now and since.

Fine, that this one was keyed out to species - I guess this happened for the second time for this family in bugguide!

regards, Boris

… Boris Büche, 8 January, 2007 - 9:11am

Genus is . . .

Anchicera in Cryptophagidae.

For someone who is familiar with nearctic species (or: has a key on them), it should be possible to recognize the species; the colour pattern on elytra is peculiar.

cheers,

Boris (from Germany)

… Boris Büche, 5 January, 2007 - 8:05am

Then it would be

Then it would be Anchicera ephippiata (although I'm not sure if the genus is currently Anchicera or Atomaria).

… Brad Barnd, 5 January, 2007 - 6:37pm

agree - A.(something) ephippiata

Thanks Boris and Brad! After Boris said "Anchicera", I ran to Downie and Arnett (1) and behold, Anchicera ephippiata keys out at the first couplet with 'pale elytra with dark band interrupted at middle'. There's even a line drawing (rare in Downie and Arnett)

Now from here it gets a little confusing. Although Nearctica lists Anchicera ephippiata Zimmermann 1869 (Atomaria), American Beetles (official taxon guide for this site I believe) seems to place Anchicera under Atomaria (just as you stated on another Cryptophag posting Boris). However, for Atomaria, Am Beetles states "10 species" (although under the 'status of classification' heading it states Atomaria needs revision including new species). Downie and Arnett list 14 spec for Anchicera and another 6 from the Northeast US alone. And Nearctica lists about 50 for the two genera combined.

And just muddy the waters a little further, a google search blanks on "ephippiata", but hits on "Anchicera epphipiates" from Cedar Creek. I assume "epphipiates" is merely an unintentional typo. At least the Cedar Creek photo is a good likeness of mine :) (see here)

For now I'll probably leave this one as Anchicera ephippiata, and let an editor untangle this.

beetle species #86 for my little Medford backyard count. Thanks again guys!

… Tim R. Moyer, 5 January, 2007 - 9:26pm