Tiny beetle - Notiophilus biguttatus

N. biguttatus, i believe

Important guideline to follow in the future for best results: Lynette--
as a favor, could you please flip your beetle pix (this one and others) so that the specimen faces 'north'? standard orientation makes image recognition a lot easier. Thanks!
Moved from Notiophilus.

… v belov, 29 March, 2009 - 8:57pm

Thanks

and I'll try to remember that.

… Lynette Elliott, 29 March, 2009 - 10:54pm

Nice photo of Notiophilus.

However, most species of this genus are not easily separated on the basis of field photographs. Furthermore, I don't believe there has been published a single comprehensive taxonomic key that covers all the western members.

… Peter W. Messer, 2 March, 2009 - 11:56am

Thanks

Is there a list of western species?

… Lynette Elliott, 2 March, 2009 - 3:10pm

Nine Notiophilus species known in the Northwest:

N. aquaticus, biguttatus, borealis, directus*, intermedius, nitens*, semistriatus, simulator*, sylvaticus*. Four asterisked (*) names are given WA status in the 1993 catalogue by Bousquet & Larochelle. The others are known in political regions adjacent to WA and therefore are additional candidates. As it turns out, these nine species are covered in a reliable key by Lindroth (1961). Lynette, I am familiar with that key and so you cam mail me the specimen for determination/retention if you like.

… Peter W. Messer, 2 March, 2009 - 6:32pm

Well,

I can't mail you this one, since there is no hope of ever finding it again. But, I can catch one and mail it to you. I suppose I'll have to kill it first... alcohol. I'm assuming that the large population we have of these is all the same species?

Oh I see you have good instructions for mailing on your account page. Very nice.

… Lynette Elliott, 2 March, 2009 - 6:48pm