Opisthius richardsoni Kirby, 1837

Bousquet, Yves, 2012, Catalogue of Geadephaga (Coleoptera, Adephaga) of America, north of Mexico, ZooKeys 245, pp. 1-1722 : 128

Opisthius richardsoni Kirby, 1837

Opisthius richardsoni Kirby, 1837: 61. Type locality: "[probably] on an island of Lake Winnipeg" (original citation), which is incorrect (Lindroth 1961a: 89); "Medicine Hat, Al[ber]ta" selected by Lindroth (1961a: 89). Lectotype (♂), designated by Bousquet and Smetana (1996: 220), in BMNH. Etymology. The specific name was proposed for John Richardson [1787-1865], surgeon and naturalist to Sir John Franklin on two Arctic expeditions, 1819-1822 and 1825-1827.

Distribution.

The range of this species extends from central Saskatchewan to the Arctic Circle in central Alaska (Lindroth 1961a: 89-90), south to Tuolumne County in the Sierra Nevada of California (Dajoz 2007: 17) and north-central New Mexico (Taos County, CNC). The record from “Iowa” (Jaques and Redlinger 1946: 295) is probably based on a mislabeled specimen or a stray. Fossil remnants of this species from the late Wisconsinan age have been found in northeastern Illinois, north-central Iowa, south-central Minnesota, and northwestern Ontario (see Ashworth and Schwert 1991: 511); others from a Plio-Pleistocene sequence have been found in northwestern Greenland and Meighen Island ( Böcher 1995: 18).

Records.

CAN: AB, BC (VCI), NT, SK, YT USA: AK, CA, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY