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Photo#6717
Clay-colored Billbug - Sphenophorus aequalis

Clay-colored Billbug - Sphenophorus aequalis
Rancho Bernardo, San Diego County, California, USA
January 31, 2003
This weevil was captured at Lake Hodges, near the shoreline, and photographed in my home.

Moved
Moved from Clay-coloured Billbug.

Populations of southern California fall under pictus (Vaurie, 1951, revision), though delimitation against other western subspecies is difficult.
Pattern variable; as seen here, is the typical pictus pattern (white stripes in intervals 2 and 8 only), but striping can be more extensive.

Moved
Moved from Billbugs.

 
ID confirmed by Charles O'Brien
Sphenophorus aequalis Gyllenhal

I´ll treat it like this:
Nearctica lists Sphenophorus aequalis only; S.discolor is, in different sources, listed as a synonym or a subspecies of aequalis, respectively.
Not being able to decide the matter, I will put it as S.aequalis - subspecies are not featured in bugguide structure.

cheers, Boris

guide page request
Dear Robyn,

I checked Nearctica for the species, and did not find it. May S.aequalis be the current name? How did you get to an ID?
It is easy to create a page in the guide - but less so to delete it, if it was a wrong entry.

:-)

 
No consensus
I originally identified it as S. discolor using "Calif. Insects" by Jerry Powell and Charles Hogue (on older field guide). This particular photo of mine (of this exact individual!) has been published in two recent books, "Beetles of California" by Arthur Evans and Jim Hogue (Charles' son) as S. aequalis, and in the Kaufman Insect guide as S. dicolor (no "s"). I've been meaning to look into this (as it can't be all of these species!), but have been extremely busy of late and have had to put insect activities on the back burner...

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