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Photo#9097
Toed-winged Beetle - Ptilodactyla serricollis - male

Toed-winged Beetle - Ptilodactyla serricollis - Male
Ailsa Craig, Ontario, Canada
June 30, 2004
Found on our front porch at night, I don't know the origin of the name but this is a 5 mm Toed-winged Beetle, family Ptilodactylidae. It looks like Ptilodactyla serricollis (the only species in the genus in Canada), based on a drawing in Bland's "How to Know the Insects", and photos of the genus here and here.
Note the apical spurs on the tibiae; only males have pectinate antennae.

I agree
I agree with you on genus and am moving to the new genus page.

Given that there is a record for only Ptilodactyla serricollis in Canada, you are likely right about species. It may be hard to be certain, since the key in Downie & Arnett looks unusually difficult to use.

--Stephen

Stephen Cresswell
Buckhannon, WV
www.stephencresswell.com

 
Ptilodactyla
Thanks, Stephen. I had forgotten about this one, and didn't realize there wasn't a genus page until now.
Does Downie & Arnett give distribution info for the 6 northeastern species? The 1991 Canadian Checklist (PDF doc linked to on the family page) says "The genus Ptilodactyla needs to be revised but new species are not likely to be discovered in Canada." Do you know whether any of the 6 species are recent splits from previously known species? If not, I'm guessing that at least some of them have restricted distributions - maybe even endemic to the northeastern US - if only 1 of the 6 makes it into Canada.

 
Beetle ranges
Downie & Arnett are nice enough to include listings for all nine species of Ptilodactyla they say inhabit America north of Mexico. You're right, some have restricted ranges, or at least, they barely range into the U.S. They note only a Texas record for P. equilobata, for example, and only a Texas record for P. hyperglotta.

Their records match the data you have for Canada, namely, a record for P. serricollis only (listed with an Ontario record plus eleven states).

I don't know the history of various rearrangements of Ptilodactyla, and Downie & Arnett don't address that.

--Stephen

Stephen Cresswell
Buckhannon, WV
www.stephencresswell.com

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