Barklouse ID - Bertkauia crosbyana

you know what, guys?

I’ve just discovered, much to my astonishment, that Prof. Mockford is the author of 8 genera and 72 species listed in nearctica.com – a quarter of this continent’s psocopteran fauna – how about that?! – with the earliest descriptions dating back to the year 1950. (All I did was simply fishing out his e-mail address searching the web at random for someone to show a BugGuide pic to…)
Aren't we incredibly lucky to have such people helping us?

… v belov, 1 January, 2009 - 12:44pm

Bertkauia (Epipsocidae) -- both taxa new to the Guide

Ed Mockford det.
his comment: "This is a species of Bertkauia, probably B. crosbyana Chapman, due to the dark color."
Thank you, Prof. Mockford, for your swift reply on the New Year's Eve!

… v belov, 31 December, 2008 - 8:03pm

Great!

Thank you for solving the case of this peculiar little barklouse. I'll request a page. Happy New Year!

… Scott Justis, 31 December, 2008 - 9:11pm

VERY cool

new family for the guide! Nice job, Scott.

Super detective work as always, v. Thanks for all your care and dedication. You're making the Guide an even better place to be! :)

… Kevin Hall, 31 December, 2008 - 8:17pm

Thanks Kevin!

I second the comment about v as well.

… Scott Justis, 31 December, 2008 - 9:18pm

missed this one -- lovely critter!

the size and proportions suggest a mature female, rather -- i'll try to figure it out

… v belov, 31 December, 2008 - 10:56am

hmmm...

Awesome little critter. I've got *no* idea. Thanks for adding it to the pics on the site, however!

… Kevin Hall, 29 December, 2008 - 6:52am

I can't find..

anything like it in the barklouse pages.

… Scott Justis, 29 December, 2008 - 5:32pm

hmmm...

I'm not *entirely* convinced this guy has to be a bark louse. If it is a bark louse, then it's either a kind without wings or such an early ?stage?/?molt? that it doesn't have wings yet...?? You know, it'd probably be a good idea to get Martin Hauser and Frans to take a peek at it. I know Frans has already been enjoying your other pics anyway. You two really ought to put a coffee table book together of "backyard monsters" or something like that.

… Kevin Hall, 29 December, 2008 - 9:03pm

I thought it might be...

an immature. It doesn't seem to have wing buds either. I wish I could have taken more images of it. The flash scared it pretty good and after a few times, it disappeared. Hopefully someone will come along and put an ID on it.

A book would be a nice project when I retire in the near future (hopefully). I haven't even put any of these images up on my website yet.

… Scott Justis, 29 December, 2008 - 9:43pm

Philip Careless was the one

who put most of the Psocopteran images in order. Not sure what happened to him. We haven't seen his comments in a while. It might be good to contact him and see what he says. Besides we've added quite a few images of Psocoptera recently that need some help!

… john and jane balaban, 30 December, 2008 - 9:10am

I checked his bio...

There is no e-mail address listed. Looks like he might be in Costa Rica.

… Scott Justis, 30 December, 2008 - 1:52pm