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This beetle was caught in a pitfall trap partially filled with isopropanol and buried under a rock on 09JUL2022 at 35°35'39.9"N 104°36'53.3"W, 5872 ft. elevation, next to the winding road leading down into Higgins Canyon from the parking lot just outside Sabinoso Wilderness in the Canon Olguin 7.5’ quadrangle, San Miguel Co., New Mexico. The specimen was retrieved on 22JUL2022 (date of record).

It is female, based on the exposed gentialia (1).

I've posted high resolution images to help ID this specimen. It keys to Melanotus in the Elateridae key to genra of Arnett, et al., Vol. 2 (2):
1. Claw lack setae; there are only empodial setae between the claws.
17. Vestiture is of slender hairlike setae.
20. Claws are pectinate.
21. Nasale is simple, lacking carinae.
22. Hypomeron has a medial margin strongly flared and reflexed anteriorly.

I haven't had much success with the Melanotus key to species of Quate 1967 (3). Its elytron length (a measure used by Quake) is 6.6 mm.

This image is from a Helicon Focus processed stack of 128 images with a 31 µm step taken with a Mitutoyo M Plan APO 5×/0.14 ∞/0 mm microscope objective + Nikon 135 mm F2.8 AIS telephoto lens + Nikon D810 camera (magnification 3.375×).