Mocyta fungi (Gravenhorst)

Klimaszewski, Jan, Webster, Reginald P., Bourdon, Caroline, Pelletier, Georges, Godin, Benoit & Langor, David W., 2015, Review of Canadian species of the genus Mocyta Mulsant & Rey (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae), with the description of a new species and a new synonymy, ZooKeys 487, pp. 111-139 : 119-121

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Staphylinidae

3. Mocyta fungi (Gravenhorst) Figs 5 a–j

Aleochara fungi Gravenhorst 1806: 157; Muona 1984, Gusarov 2003, Smetana 2004, McLean et al. 2009, Klimaszewski et al. 2011. For extensive synonymy, see Gusarov 2003 and Smetana 2004. LECTOTYPE (female): Aleochara fungi Gravenhorst; Lectotype, V. Mahler des. 1986; Europa, nr. 5499; typus; fungi Gr. (ZMB) [examined by Klimaszewski].

Diagnosis.

Body broadly oval (Fig. 5a), length 2.4-3.0 mm; body uniformly dark brown to black, in some specimens body black and posterior or central part of elytra with reddish tinge, appendages light brown; antennal articles I-IV elongate and V-X subquadrate or slightly transverse; pronotum broad, transverse, rounded laterally and arcuate basally; elytra transverse and ca. as long as pronotum or longer; abdomen broadly arcuate laterally (Fig. 5a). MALE: median lobe of aedeagus as illustrated (Figs 5b, c) [absent in North America]. FEMALE: spermatheca with capsule pear-shaped, as illustrated (Figs 5 d–h); tergite VIII truncate apically (Fig. 5i); sternite VII broadly rounded apically with fringe of microsetae, distance between antecostal suture and base of disc narrow, antecostal suture sinuate (Fig. 5j).

This species is externally very similar to Mocyta amblystegii and may be identified with certainty only by the shape of the spermatheca. The presence of males in Canadian populations of Mocyta amblystegii and lack of males in Canadian populations of Mocyta fungi may also aid in the identification of these species.

Distribution.

Palaearctic, adventive in North America, cosmopolitan in many regions of the world ( Smetana 2004). Canada: YT, NU, BC, AB, SK, ON, QC, NB, NS, PE, LB, NF, and USA: AK, ME, MA, MN, NY, OR, RI ( Moore and Legner 1975, Muona 1984, Gusarov 2003, Klimaszewski et al. 2005, 2007a, 2008, 2011, 2012, Majka and Klimaszewski 2008, 2010, Brunke et al. 2012). We include new records of this species from Saskatchewan in Canada.

Natural history.

Mocyta fungi is represented in North America by parthenogenetic females only. In Newfoundland, adults were collected in pitfall traps in cut and burned balsam fir, birch, spruce-poplar and riparian forests, in agricultural fields and amongst vegetation on coastal sand dunes ( Klimaszewski et al. 2011). The adult activity period in Newfoundland is June to September. Adults were captured by pitfall traps from May to September in forest litter in mixed wood, red spruce in New Brunswick and yellow birch forest in southern Quebec ( Klimaszewski et al. 2005, Majka and Klimaszewski 2010).

New jurisdictional records.

CANADA: Saskatchewan: Cypress Hills, wet willow stand, 49,5978°, -109,9231°, 1134 m, 2.IX.2012, 2 males; wet pond, riparian, 49,6704°, -109,5005°, 1189 m (LFC) 1 female.