Eurypogon californicus Horn, 1880

Hinson, Kevin R. & Buss, Richard J., 2015, New State Records and Identification of North American Species ofEurypogonMotschulsky (Coleoptera: Artematopodidae), with a Lectotype Designation forEurypogon niger (Melsheimer), The Coleopterists Bulletin 69 (4), pp. 768-772 : 768-769

Eurypogon californicus Horn, 1880

While attempting to identify Eurypogon specimens collected from Colorado and New Mexico, it became evident that several of the characters used to separate E. harrisii and E. niger from E. californicus are unreliable. Brown (1944) states that “ E. harrisii falls with californicus Horn in Horn’ s key (1880, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 8:80) but the type specimen of the latter differs in having the body more elongate, the vestiture golden rather than dark brown, and the abdomen much more closely punctate.” Horn (1880) compared E.californicus to E. niger by stating that E. californicus has light brown hair, while E. niger has black hair. All E. harrisii and several E. niger (Ohio collections) specimens that were collected by us, as well as type specimens of both species, bear some light-colored hair along the dorsum ( Figs. 1 and 2 ), indicating that hair coloration is variable and alone cannot be used to identify North American Eurypogon . Further complications include Brown’ s assessment of E. californicus as having “abdomen much more closely punctate” than E. harrisii , which appears to conflict with Horn’ s statement of “body beneath sparsely punctate”. However, if both statements are taken as accurate descriptions, this implies that E. harrisii must have very sparse punctation. Our specimens of E. harrisii reveal only slightly sparser punctation than that of E. californicus .

Despite issues with diagnostic characters, careful comparison of the previously mentioned descrip- tions indicates that the Colorado and New Mexico specimens are E. californicus . These specimens have light golden hair (agreement with Brown 1944 and Horn 1880) along the entire dorsum, are sparsely punctate underneath (agreement with original E. californicus description in Horn 1880), and are more elongate ( Brown 1944, not stated in Horn 1880) than the type specimens of E. harrisii and E. niger , as well as specimens of both species collected by us. We also observed that online images of E. californicus specimens, including the holotype (MCZBASE, mczbase.mcz.harvard. edu/name/ Eurypogon %20californicus), showed a strongly trapezoidal pronotum, with the basal width much greater (∼ 40%) than the apical width, though this was not observed by Brown (1944) or Horn (1880). The hind pronotal angles of E. californicus also project slightly over the elytral humeri. For E. harrisii , the width of the pronotum at the base is only slightly wider (15%) than the width apically, and the hind angles do not project at all over the elytral humeri ( Figs. 1 and 2 ). The Colorado and New Mexico specimens are also more likely to be E. californicus due to the exclusively eastern distribution of E. harrisii . Given this assessment and corroboration by Dr. Daniel Young (University of Wisconsin, Madison), we report E. californicus ( Fig. 1 ) as a new state record for Colorado and New Mexico. The Colorado record is based on a single specimen collected in Boulder Co. at 1,950 m elevation at 651 Poorman Road, Boulder, CO, (N 40.035° W 105.332°). This specimen was collected during 5–18 July 2015 using a SLAM (Sea, Land, Air, Malaise) trap. New Mexico records are based on collections from Socorro and Taos Counties. Socorro Co. collections include three specimens collected at 2,200 m elevation near Mt. Withington in the San Mateo Mountains (N 33.72° W 107.51°). These specimens were collected 7 July 2003 at a 15-W UV light. The light was placed overnight over a basin of water containing several drops of detergent. This collecting method was also used to capture one specimen on 2 July 2005 at 2,400 m in Taos ski valley, Taos Co. (N 36.55° W 105.44°). The specimen of E. californicus collected in Colorado is deposited in the Entomology Collection at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. Specimens of E. californicus collected in New Mexico are deposited in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Figures

Fig. 1. Eurypogon niger (left) from Athens Co., Ohio; Eurypogon harrisii (middle) from Ontario, Canada; and Eurypogon californicus (right) from Taos Co., New Mexico.

Fig. 2. Newly designated lectotype for Eurypogon niger (left) and holotype for Eurypogon harrisii (right).