thanks guys for the nice addition

should be minusculus

Or do you know what paper Melsheimer, 1844 refers to? The MCZ type database agrees with this spelling.

and minusculum is correct. That spelling also agrees with the label on the neotype specimen at MCZ and the neotypification label of Smetana. The entry in the MCZ database is, then, also incorrect. Do you want to tell them or should I? The Melsheimer reference is: Descriptions of new species of Coleoptera of the United States. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 2: 102 (1844).

I fixed the BugGuide spelling and notified the MCZ.

My original note correctly corrected minisculus to minusculus. When I wrote back after checking the original reference, I accidentally ended the name with -um rather than -us. I guess I did the natural thing and mindlessly wrote -um because the Cercyon ending is a Greek neuter. Minusculus is correct. Sorry.

I wondered about that. The spelling in the original description is "-um", but you're saying that doesn't matter?

but when Smetana revised Cercyon in 1978 as a part of a larger revision of the Sphaeridiinae he apparently determined that the genus should be treated as masculine and changed all of the old names to the masculine gender. I have not seen Smetana's paper; I am inferring on the basis of current use, e.g. Sikes, The Beetle Fauna of Rhode Island (2004; although he misspelled it as minisculus), Ciegler, Water Beetles of South Carolina (2003), Bousquet (ed.), Checkist of the Beetles of Canada and Alaska (1991), Downie & Arnett, The Beetles of Northeastern North America (1996). I may be able to get access to the Smetana work tomorrow and will write back and report what he says if you're interested.

It's changed to minusculus now--we'll assume that's correct unless you check and discover otherwise.

Smetana noted that there had been considerable disagreement as to whether Cercyon was neuter or masculine but said that "since the name was derived from a Greek mythology patronym [the name rendered in Greek characters](famous Attic robber who killed Theseus) it must be condsidered masculine."

Thanks V. I agree. Though I had to cheat and look up some images on the web to find a look-alike. Besides your clearly abundant knowledge, which key did you use (or would you recommend) for this ID?

*

Now I just feel bad for not knowing it....hahaha Actually, I figured out where I was going wrong in the key and have annotated it accordingly. Thanks very much for setting me straight. It's a difficult switch to go from insect physiology/chemical ecology to taxonomy, however, yourself and others on BugGuide are certainly making it easier to adapt my keys. Thanks again ... Cheers

it's all but impossible to know all these dull dark bugs unless you've spent a life collecting and IDing them...

I have sampled from 900 pitfall traps from Cumberland County Maine where I have collected over the entire summer. So in terms of identifying tiny obscure insects, this is like taxonomic baptism by fire....hahahaha. Hope to bump into you one day soon I'm sure I will need to pick your brain a lot more.

Anyway, I suspect this one is Cercyon connivens as per BugGuide photos 108754 and 170551 submitted by by Tom Murray and as identified therein by Donald S. Chandler.

I need to break my habit of adding scale bars. Sorry about that