Darkling Beetle - Alobates barbatus

Moved

Moved from Coelometopinae.

… margarethe brummermann, 8 February, 2009 - 1:39pm

Alobates morio, i suppose

… v belov, 8 February, 2009 - 11:57am

Moved

Moved from Darkling Beetles.

… Kojun Kanda, 25 September, 2007 - 5:16pm

Moved

Moved from Beetles.

… Phillip Harpootlian, 14 September, 2006 - 8:28am

Not quite right?

In the photos I've seen of Centronopus calcaratus, the rear of the pronotum has little flanges at right and left, which don't seem to be present in your beetle. See for example here:

http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/teneb/c_calcaratus.htm

And also the drawing in Dillon & Dillon (under an earlier genus name, Scotobates).

Boy, these dark darklings can be tough! They are about as bad as ground beetles.

… Stephen_WV, 16 July, 2006 - 6:31am

Possible ID found

Stephen, thank you for the feedback and the weblink. After looking at many of the photos there, I belive this beetle is Alobates pennsylvanicus. Would you agree? If so it can be moved to a guide page or at least have another person reach the same conclusion. I love your photos by the way.

… Scott Nelson, 16 July, 2006 - 6:59am

Possibilities

Looking at your image earlier, I was thinking the head looked exactly like A. pennsylvanicus.

What has kept from me from being enthusiastic about that ID is that A. pennsylvanicus has a very flat color (not glossy or shining) and in your image the surface seems shiny. Also, A. pennsylvanicus is not really what you would call striate, it just has rows of relatively sparse punctures. Your beetle seems a little more striate to me than A. pennsylvanicus would be.

Still, all this may just be minor tricks of the camera, lighting, etc.

One more genus to look at would be Xylopinus.

… Stephen_WV, 16 July, 2006 - 7:48am