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Genus Acilius

gray-brown diving beetle - Acilius sylvanus - female Acilius sp. - Acilius semisulcatus - female Acilius athabascae (Larson) - Acilius athabascae female diving beetle - Acilius confusus - female Acilius mediatus? - Acilius Acilius? - Acilius mediatus Acilius (mediatus?) Diving Beetle - Acilius mediatus Acilius sylvanus? - Acilius
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Adephaga
Family Dytiscidae (Predaceous Diving Beetles)
Subfamily Dytiscinae
Tribe Aciliini
Genus Acilius
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
revised in (1)
Explanation of Names
Acilius Leach 1817
Numbers
7 spp. in our area, 13 total(2)(1)
Size
adult 10‒16 mm, larva 15‒30 mm
Identification
Adult: top of head yellowish with two dark transverse bands, the anterior band undulate or M-shaped; pronotum yellowish with two dark transverse bands on disc, not terminally, as in Graphoderus; notched spur on hind tibia; elytral mottling or speckling less pronounced than in Graphoderus; elytra punctate (and longitudinally sulcate in female)
Larva: swimming hairs present on last two abdominal segments; ligula deeply bifid
in Graphoderus elytra more heavily mottled/speckled, and dark transverse pronotal bands located apically
key to spp. in (1)
Range
Holarctic, widespread (including the arctic)(1)
Habitat
submergent vegetation
Season
Year-round with adults most frequently encountered in spring during mating season and late summer when they disperse
Life Cycle
Adults overwinter in permanent water bodies and disperse to breeding sites during spring; larvae complete development later in the spring and into the early summer; newly emerged adults disperse to overwintering sites later in summer/fall(3)
Works Cited
1.Taxonomic revision of the Holarctic diving beetle genus Acilius Leach (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae)
Bergsten, Johannes & Miller, Kelly B. 2006. Systematic Entomology, 31: 145-197.
2.A World Catalogue of the Family Dytiscidae, or the Diving Beetles (Coleoptera, Adephaga)
Nilsson and Hajek. 2019. Distributed by authors.
3.Predaceous Diving Beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) of the Nearctic Region, with emphasis on the fauna of Canada and Alaska
D.J. Larson, Y. Alarie, and R.E. Roughley. 2001. NRC 43253.