Phelister subrotundus (Say, 1825)

Caterino, Michael S. & Tishechkin, Alexey K., 2019, A revision of the Phelisterhaemorrhous species group (Coleoptera, Histeridae, Exosternini), ZooKeys 854, pp. 41-88 : 61-63

Phelister subrotundus (Say, 1825) Figs 2, 6; Map 4

Hister subrotundus Say, 1825: 39.

Phelister subrotundus : Marseul 1853: 487.

Phelister rubricatus Lewis, 1908: 158; Mazur 1997: 29.

Phelister subrotundus var. sayi Carnochan, 1915: 213; Mazur 1997: 29.

Phelister subrotundus var. frosti Carnochan, 1915: 213; Mazur 1997: 29.

Phelister carnochani Casey, 1916: 291; Mazur 1984: 285.

Phelister contractus Casey, 1916: 230, syn nov. (previously synonymized with P. affinis by Mazur (1997), in error).

Phelister subrotundatus : Mazur 1984: 286 (misspelling).

Type material.

Neotype of Hister subrotundus Say, hereby designated: [pale pinkish round disk] / “892” / "NEOTYPE Hister subrotundus Say Desg. Caterino & Tishechkin, 2011", MCZC. This common, widespread, and somewhat variable Nearctic species needs to be represented by a physical type so as to establish the identity of P. subrotundus , in the event that later work reveals it to represent multiple species.

Types of synonyms. Lectotype of Phelister rubricatus Lewis hereby designated: “Type” [red bordered disk] / "Dane Co., Wis. IX.30.99" / "G.Lewis Coll. B.M.1926-369" / "Phelister rubricatus Lewis Type" / "LECTOTYPE Phelister rubricatus Lewis M.S. Caterino and A.K. Tishechkin des. 2010", NHMUK; Paralectotype: "Eddyville, IA" (interpreted by G. Lewis [1908] as Eddyville, Ja. [sic]) / "G.Lewis Coll. B.M.1926-369" / "Phelister rubricatus Lew. Cotype" / "PARALECTOTYPE Phelister rubricatus Lewis M.S. Caterino and A.K. Tishechkin des. 2010", NHMUK. Holotypes of Carnochan’s ‘varieties’, P. subrotundus var. sayi and P. subrotundus var. frosti , are in MCZ (#26012 and 26013, respectively.) Lectotype of Phelister carnochani Casey hereby designated: "Alab 2289" / "Casey bequest 1925" / "TYPE USNM 38448" / "carnochani Csy. sayi Csy nec Carn." / "LECTOTYPE Phelister carnochani Casey M.S. Caterino and A.K. Tishechkin des. 2019, USNM. Holotype of Phelister contractus Casey: "Lee Co Tex" / "Casey bequest 1925" / "TYPE USNM 38447" / "contractus Csy.", USNM. This species was previously synonymized, in error, with Phelister affinis by Mazur (1997). Wenzel (unpub. notes) agrees with our assessment.

Diagnostic description.

Length: 1.54-1.85 mm (avg. 1.69 mm); width: 1.30-1.62 mm (avg. 1.52 mm). Body elongate-oval, widest behind humeri, mostly piceous, posterolateral corners of elytra and legs generally reddish; entire dorsum finely punctulate, the pronotum more densely so than the elytra; frons finely punctulate, impressed along midline, supraorbital stria complete, frontal stria interrupted at middle, slightly sinuate at sides; labrum wide, weakly emarginate apically; both mandibles with strong tooth on inner edges; pronotum with more or less complete lateral submarginal stria incurved and crenulate anteriorly, ending freely, and diverging slightly from pronotal margin posteriorly, where it is weakly abbreviated; pronotal disk with larger punctures interspersed with finer punctures along lateral thirds; elytron with single, complete epipleural stria, outer subhumeral stria present in apical third, inner subhumeral stria absent, dorsal striae 1-5 complete, sutural stria obsolete in basal third; propygidium with distinct secondary punctures decreasing in density posteriad; pygidium more finely punctate; prosternal keel with two complete striae, weakly convergent and free anteriorly, usually united along basal margin of keel; male prosternal keel with coarser and denser punctures, the striae often more widely separated and more nearly parallel; mesoventral marginal stria complete, weakly crenulate, close to anterior mesoventral margin, often with corresponding median ‘point’, continued at sides by postmesocoxal stria which ends freely midway between the meso- and metacoxae; mesometaventral stria complete, crenulate at middle, arched anteriad distinctly onto mesoventrite (with weakly parallel median ‘point’ to mesoventral stria), curving posteriad to near inner corner of metacoxa; first abdominal ventrite with complete inner lateral stria and abbreviated outer lateral stria; protibia with apex obliquely truncate, outer margin weakly rounded, bearing ca. six evenly spaced marginal spines; meso- and metatibiae weakly expanded to apex, mesotibia with ca. five marginal spines, more prominent toward apex, metatibia with distinct spines confined to apical fourth. Aedeagus with basal piece ca. one-fourth total length; tegmen widened toward apex, apex evenly rounded, with shallow apical emargination; median lobe ca. two-thirds tegmen length, with differentiated basal and distal proximal apodemes.

Remarks.

Among species occurring in the United States, P. subrotundus is easily separated by the following character states: elytra reddish posterolaterally; frons depressed, with frontal stria interrupted; submarginal pronotal stria present, more or less complete, curved mediad anteriorly and diverging from margin posteriorly; prosternal striae converging anteriorly to nearly parallel, intervening punctures denser in male; elytral stria 1-5 complete. Below we refer to this species and following four ( P. rufinotus , P. thiemei , P. rouzeti , and P. parecis ) informally as the P. rufinotus complex, and their close relationship is supported by phylogenetic analyses to date.

Biology.

The species has diverse and general habits, having been collected very commonly in dung, as well as in decaying vegetation, leaf litter, seaweed on the beach, in pocket gopher ( Geomys ) burrows, and even with a few ant species (in the genera Aphaenogaster Mayr and Formica L.). A few of the specimens from pocket gopher burrows, including one from Arkansas and four from Georgia, are unusually small and have a posteriorly abbreviated sublateral pronotal stria. Males from both localities were dissected and do not differ in any obvious way from others of the species, so we have not considered them distinct. Further study should more carefully address this possibility with molecular data. Interestingly, a long series from Geomys bursarius (Shaw) burrows from St Clair Co, Illinois, do not exhibit these differences.

Distribution.

This is the most abundant and widespread Phelister species in North America, occurring from southeastern Canada to Florida, west to South Dakota and Arizona. We have not seen any records from Mexico, but it occurs in several US border counties, and must occur south of the border as well. Records: CANADA: Ontario; Quebec; USA: Alabama: Blount, Greene, Marion; Arizona: Pima, Santa Cruz; Arkansas: Calhoun, Lafayette, Lee, Little River, Scott, Washington; Delaware: Kent, Sussex; District of Columbia; Florida: Alachua; Georgia: Baker, Burke, Clarke, Dodge, Lamar, Peach, Talbot, Thomas, Wheeler; Illinois: Champaign, Coles, Cook, Grundy, Iroquois, Jackson, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kankakee, Lake, Mason, McHenry, Pope, St. Clair, Will; Indiana: Boone, Brown, Franklin, Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Laurel, Lawrence, Monroe, Newton, Parke, Porter, Starke, Tippecanoe, Vanderburgh; Iowa: Butler, Cedar, Dickinson, Dubuque, Johnson, Marshall, Monroe, Muscatine, Plymouth, Story, Warren; Kansas: Bourbon, Decatur, Doniphan, Douglas, Jefferson, Kiowa, Labette, Leavenworth, Miami, Montgomery, Norton, Pottowatomie, Rawlins, Riley, Sedgwick, Shawnee; Kentucky: Bell, Henderson; Louisiana: Bienville, Orleans, St. Charles, West Feliciana; Maine: Oxford; Maryland: Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Garret, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Somerset, Talbot, Washington; Massachusetts: Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Plymouth; Michigan: Ingham, Kalamazoo, Macomb, Washtenaw, Wayne; Minnesota: Brown; Mississippi: Harrison, Oktibbeha, Pontotoc; Missouri: Boone, Marion, Mississippi, Pike, Saint Louis, Scott, Taney, Washington, Nebraska: Clay, Lancaster, Lincoln, Saunders; New Jersey: Bergen, Camden, Cape May, Gloucester, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, Union; New Hampshire: Grafton; New Mexico: Hidalgo; New York: Cattaraugus, Kings, Monroe, Nassau, Onondaga, Orange, Richmond, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Suffolk, Tompkins; North Carolina: Buncombe, Duplin, Edgecombe, Jackson, New Hanover, Swain, Wake; North Dakota: Cass, Richland; Ohio: Ashland, Clermont, Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hocking, Lucas, Medina, Ross, Scioto, Summit, Wayne; Oklahoma: Cleveland, Comanche, Craig, Grant, Hughes, Latimer, Marshall, McCurtain, Payne, Sequoyah, Woods; Pennsylvania: Bradford, Cambria, Chester, Dauphin, Fulton, Luzerne, Monroe, Montgomery, Perry, Philadelphia; South Carolina: Anderson, Bamberg, Charleston, Dorchester, Florence, Pickens, Richland; South Dakota: Jackson, Lawrence, Minnehaha, Pennington, Yankton; Tennessee: Benton, Blount, Davidson, Hamilton, Montgomery, Morgan, Sevier, Wilson; Texas: Brazos, Colorado, Dallas, Denton, Duval, Erath, Goliad, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Montague, Val Verde; Virginia: Arlington, Fairfax, Nansemond, Nelson, Spotsylvania; West Virginia: Berkeley, Braxton, Grant, Greenbrier, Mason, Mineral, Preston, Putnam, Wayne; Wisconsin: Crawford, Dane, Iowa, Jefferson, Kenosha, Lafayette, Richland, Sauk, Shawano, Walworth, Waupaca.