Boreophilia subplana (Sahlberg)

Klimaszewski, Jan, Chandler, Donald S., Davies, Anthony & Bourdon, Caroline, 2023, Aleocharine rove beetles of New Hampshire, USA: new taxa and new records (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae), Zootaxa 5364 (1), pp. 1-141 : 46

75. Boreophilia subplana (Sahlberg) *

(Illustrations in Klimaszewski et al. 2021), Table 1

References. Sahlberg 1880. Lohse et al. 1990. Gusarov 2003. Smetana 2004. Klimaszewski et al. 2016b, 2019, 2021.

Distribution. Holarctic, recorded from A/S ( Klimaszewski et al. 2021). Canada: NT, NU. USA: AK, NH.

Collection and Habitat data. In NH captured in September from dwarf birch litter, and dwarf Salix , Vaccinium , leatherleaf litter. In Canada and Alaska found in Salix leaf litter, on tundra hillside, in black spruce forest, at brackish shoreline, and under rocks and wrack. Collected from June to August using hanging Malaise traps, aspirating from under rocks/cobbles, sweeping low vegetation, use of pitfall traps and pollinator cup/pitfalls, and by processing leaf litters with Berlese funnels (Klimaszewki et al. 2021).

Material. USA, New Hampshire, Coos Co.: Mt. Washington, Alpine Garden, 5300’, 12.IX.1987, J.M. Campbell and A. Davies, sifting dwarf birch litter ( CNC), 1 female. Mt. Washington above tree line, 5200–5700’, 10.IX.1987, J.M. Campbell and A. Davies, dwarf Salix , Vaccinium , leatherleaf litter ( CNC) 1 male, 1 female. Mt. Washington is the type locality of the two junior synonyms Atheta (Metaxya) angusticornis Bernhauer (1907) and Metaxya plutonica Casey (1910) .

Comments. Bernhauer (1907) described Atheta (Metaxya) angusticornis from Mount Washington, NH, USA. Gusarov (2003) transferred it to the genus Boreophilia , and considered it closely related to B. subplana , from which he differentiated it by the “shape of aedeagus, particularly a narrower apex of the median lobe in “parameral view” ( Klimaszewski et al. 2021). We have studied the median lobe of AK and NH specimens and found no differences warranting different species recognition. The Mount Washington, NH, population represents an isolated, southernmost population of this species known only from higher latitudes.