Had this nicely patterned beetle in the sample from last May. I thought it should be an easy determination, given the pattern and general characteristics. I initially thought “hairy fungus beetle”, possibly even one already in BG. But something didn’t look quite right – too little hair, pronotum not deflected enough laterally, abdominal sternites posterior margin deflected laterally, etc. After a little time with the keys and browsing BG, it seemed like Teneb was a certainty, but which one? Attempted further keying, but got no answer that made sense. Finally resorted to reading through the entire family in D&A, sorting first on size and description, and came to Alphitophagus bifasciatus. The size fit and was the only species truly listed at the measured size. But the D&A description seemed to indicate only a sutural stripe, not “bi-banded”. Lastly, went back to BG to see if the species was already represented, and . . . sure enough, there among the images was one I previously posted a few years ago.

(sigh) at least this is a better image. . .