Download high resolution image here.

I collected this specimen by sweeping foliage with a net on Tree Spring Trl. (No. 147), 8600 ft, Sandia Crest 7.5’ quadrangle in the Sandia Mountains, Bernalillo Co, NM. I infer it to be male based on pronotal markings (see below). I also collected a female in the same area on the same day, but it subsequently popped off the wire I glued it to, and was lost. The following year in the same area and time of year (Sep. 2, 2012), though, I collected four more females. I've posted one here:



From Gordon's species key for Hyperaspidius(1) we have:

Elytra vittate; west of 100'th meridian; prosternum impunctate ... anterior margin truncate; head of male always yellow except vertex usually brown or black; male pronotum yellow on anterior margin (except arcuatus).

From this alone, the species is either comparatus, mimus, simulatus, or pallescens. The key from that point depends on genital characteristics, which are beyond my abilities to determine. Only comparatus, however, is recorded from New Mexico in Gordon. Indeed, it is reported as being found in Bernalillo Co. itself. The presumptive female, meanwhile, is consistent with the detailed species description.

Expert confirmation of ID is appreciated.

This image is from a CombineZP processed stack of 126 images with a 5.6 µm step taken with a Mitutoyo M Plan APO 10X/0.28 microscope objective + Nikon 200 mm F4 AF ED IF macro lens + Nikon D300 camera (magnification 10X; technique described here).