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Photo#98509
Minute Tree-fungus Beetle - Ceracis thoracicornis - female

Minute Tree-fungus Beetle - Ceracis thoracicornis - Female
Guelph, Wellington, Ontario, Canada
March 10, 2007
Size: 1.5 mm
Nearly every time that I inspect the fungi, I find something new - the diversity of life inside a single bracket is amazing indeed, even though the fungi were collected in winter.
Is this one an Octotemnus? I'm even beginning to wonder if some of the Ciids that I have been finding are just color variants of the same species...

Change of mind - this Ciid is different. In comparing it to the other similar-looking Ciid which I submitted earlier, it is noticible that this Ciid appears to be more slender than the other.

Images of this individual: tag all
Minute Tree-fungus Beetle - Ceracis thoracicornis - female Minute Tree-fungus Beetle - Ceracis thoracicornis - female Minute Tree-fungus Beetle - Ceracis thoracicornis - female

Ceracis colony still thriving
And apart from the distinctively horned males, there are many "hornless" females. Moved from Minute Tree-fungus Beetles.

Not Octotemnus
you already pointed it out: more parallel!

also, this one is conspicously punctured on the elytra, which also does not apply to Octotemnus.

In Europe, apart from Octotemnus, the only genera containing glabrous species are Cis and Orthocis. The latter can be excluded, because pronotum is not explanate at sides.
OUR glabrous Cis spp. are a well defined group, in which the males lack conspicous sexual characters, and in which the elytra bear dual puncturation.

cheers, Boris

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