flood debris #9 - Scymnus rubricaudus

Moved

Moved from Scymnus.

… Abigail Parker, 11 March, 2012 - 1:52pm

S. rubricaudis?

Seems more yellow than reddish, but everything else matches. It also has some resemblance to S. fraternus etc., but is much too small for any of those species; it fits the size range of S. rubricaudis, though.

… Abigail Parker, 20 June, 2011 - 5:01pm

Thanks,

anything you'd like me to check further (I should probably re-check the size, as I normally "pixel-measure" everything)?

… Tim Moyer, 20 June, 2011 - 10:25pm

size and prosternal carinae

If you could push the forelegs aside a little and get a shot of the anterior end of the prosternal carinae that'd be great!

… Abigail Parker, 21 June, 2011 - 8:15am

first part

well, I got the first part done - I re-found the beetle - not always a certainty :) It's in the relaxing jar now, hopefully to be imaged tomorrow.

… Tim Moyer, 22 June, 2011 - 10:13pm

thanks! - matches S. rubricaudus

(I just realized I spelled "rubricaudus" wrong the whole first set of comments, d'oh!)

The slightly converging intercoxal carinae, reaching the anterior margin of the prosternum, exactly match Gordon's description of S. rubricaudus. The only thing I'm not totally convinced about is the rear end color - seems more yellowish than reddish - but the red pigment of coccinellids is always fugitive after death, and the time it spent in the water could've assisted the fading color.

… Abigail Parker, 27 June, 2011 - 12:24pm

size

Tonight I managed to confirm the size via direct measurement. 1.8mm as shown, likely no more than 2.0mm as formerly walking around.

… Tim Moyer, 27 June, 2011 - 10:52pm

also matches S. rubricaudus...

I must've keyed this out half a dozen times and it always comes up S. rubricaudus, and everything about it matches the external description in Gordon except the non-reddishness! And I think that can be explained by water leaching the color while it was becoming flood debris. (Plus, I'm slightly red-green colorblind and I don't see red as well as most people.)

I'm ready to call it S. rubricaudus and create a page for it, what do you think?

… Abigail Parker, 29 June, 2011 - 8:00am

sure,

you already know far more than I do regarding this one. The color currently is a yellow w/o much red tone at all (as shown), but as you say, it likely was more red before the flood.

… Tim Moyer, 29 June, 2011 - 9:26pm