Homalota plana (Gyllenhal, 1810)

Brunke, Adam J., Pentinsaari, Mikko & Klimaszewski, Jan, 2021, Integrative taxonomy of Nearctic and Palaearctic Aleocharinae: new species, synonymies, and records (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae), ZooKeys 1041, pp. 27-99 : 27

Homalota plana (Gyllenhal, 1810) Fig. 26A-G

Material

(DNA barcoded specimens). Belgium: Sint-Genesius-Rode, BR Zonienwoud, 50.7505, 4.423, 28.IV.2010, F. Koehler (1, ZSM) . Germany: Arnsberg-Breitenbruch, NWZ Hellerberg , 51.446, 8.135, 30.V.2011, F. Koehler (2, ZSM); Heimbach-Blens, Linkheld, 50.648, 6.468, 29.VIII.2012, F. Koehler (2, ZSM); Erftstadt-Bliesheim, NWZ Altwald Ville, 50.7917, 6.84384, 03.VI.2011, F. Koehler (1, ZSM); westl. Klein-Quenstedt, 51.9239, 11.0478, 20.III.2015, GBOL-Team ZFMK (1, ZFMK) . Finland: Al: Finström, Norrö, 60.2458, 19.822, 5.VII.2012, M. Pentinsaari (1, ZMUO); Ka: Joutseno , Kuurmanpohja , 61.071, 28.75, 3.VIII.2012, M. Pentinsaari (1, ZMUO) . Canada: Ontario: Guelph, Eramosa River Trail, 43.539, -80.236, deciduous forest, 14.IV.2017, M. Pentinsaari (2, CBG) .

Distribution.

Origin. Uncertain. Canada: AB, MB, NB, NF, NS, ON. United States: AZ, CA, CO, IA, ID, IN, MT, NY, OH, PA, TX.

Bionomics.

Specimens occur under bark of dead trees.

Comments.

Sequenced Nearctic specimens from ON form a distinct barcode cluster, separate from all sequenced Palearctic specimens and divergent by 7.58%. This pattern is inconsistent with a species adventive in North America and we remove H. plana from the list of adventive species in Canada. Preliminary comparisons between images of Palaearctic and Nearctic specimens revealed that there may be some slight differences in the shape of the spermatheca. More research is needed to determine the status of the Nearctic and Palaearctic populations, though the level of genetic divergence between discrete Nearctic and Palaearctic populations suggests that two sister species are involved.

Figures

Figure 26. Homalota plana (Gyllenhal) A habitus B median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view C spermatheca D male tergite VIII E male sternite VIII F female tergite VIII G female sternite VIII. Scale bars: 1 mm (A); 0.2 mm (B-G). Illustrations after Klimaszewski et al. (2018), used with permission.