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Photo#163596
Onthophilus sp. - Onthophilus lecontei

Onthophilus sp. - Onthophilus lecontei
Ash Mountain, 2800' elev., Tulare County, California, USA
February 5, 1983
Size: ca. 3 mm
It looks like something in Onthophilus to me. Any ideas on a species identification?

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Onthophilus sp. - Onthophilus lecontei Onthophilus sp. - Onthophilus lecontei Onthophilus sp. - Onthophilus lecontei Onthophilus sp. - Onthophilus lecontei Onthophilus sp. - Onthophilus lecontei

Moved
Moved from Onthophilus.

Probably...
pretty safe to say it's O. lecontei, seeing that's the only Onthophilus listed on the California Beetle Project database. Although, Mazur's world catalogue does list O. kirni as occurring in CA. Safer to put it at genus level until it can be keyed. Would it be possible to get a shot of the ventral surface showing punctation of metasternum?

 
I will try.
I will try.

 
Onthophilus lecontei
I ran them through the key and they clearly key out to O. lecontei. The pronotal costae 2 & 3 are clearly present, though not extending all the way to the posterior margin. It also lack the fosa on elytral costa 3. So while these are from the Sierra Nevada instead of the coastal plain, I can see nothing to keep them from being the typical California species.

Thanks for the key Jeff!

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