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Photo#47882
Geotrupes blackburnii

Geotrupes blackburnii
Denton, Martinak State Park, 38.861, -75.839, Caroline County, Maryland, USA
October 21, 2000
Size: 18 mm
Crawling on ground in woods by shed with bright porch light.
Please note: you must obtain a permit to collect insects in Maryland State Parks and Forests.

Maryland Biodiversity Project (MBP)
Photo added to MBP: http://www.marylandbiodiversity.com.

ID tips
ID'd with the help of Phillip Harpootlian. Sutural striae end at the scutelum which excludes G. hornii and G. balyi. Punctate striae exclude G. semiopacus. Body is not so broad as the almost circular G. egeriei. The G. blackburnii in my collection are black with a subtle bronze sheen and nowhere near as shiny and coloful as G. splendidus. Phillip Harpootlian tell me that blackburnii can have a blue or green iridescence although this is usually dull. However, these colors are variable and I am not sure how one would separate a brightly colored blackburnii from a dull splendidus. In my small collection, the blackburnii tend to be a bit more elongate than splendidus (i.e., slendidus is somewhat intermediate in shape between egeriei and blackburnii) but I do not know if this is always true. I don't think slendidus is attracted to light.

 
pronotum
Without actually having the specimen in hand, the easiest way to differentiate would be that splendidus typically have at least some noticeable coarse punctures on the pronotum.

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