domingo, 02 de abril de 2023

Xylobiops in Texas

There are three species of Xylobiops found in Texas. An additional species is found in Mexico and possibly southern California and Arizona. A preliminary document that is mostly an excerpt for now has been uploaded to my website to help with identifying these species.

The most obvious character is pilosity. If the beetle is glabrous, it's X. basilaris. If the beetle is hairy, it could be X. texanus or X. sextuberculatos. I've uploaded a document that includes a key to the genera of Xyloperthini and a key to the species of Xylobiops.

Publicado el domingo, 02 de abril de 2023 a las 07:27 PM por victorengel victorengel | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

sábado, 29 de mayo de 2021

Tripudia

Some species of Tripudia are said to be indistinguishable except by inspecting genitalia. T. quadrifera and T. rectangula are mostly able to be separated by range, with the former restricted to Texas, within the United States, and the latter found outside of Texas. It seems there are exceptions, though, and I think they can be fairly reliably distinguished as illustrated in these photos, marked up from photos at MPG.


In T. quadrifera the boundaries indicated with red lines are parallel. In T. rectangula they are further apart along the trailing edges of the wings.

Publicado el sábado, 29 de mayo de 2021 a las 10:19 PM por victorengel victorengel | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

lunes, 11 de enero de 2021

PSYCHODIDAE NOTES

This journal entry is somewhat of an experiment to see what HTML I can use here. There's a bit of a clash with the site's CSS, so it doesn't look quite right. I also note I don't seem to be able to use HTML in the title, and nested table tags don't work. That said, I think the information here is useful enough to post. My main work file will be kept locally. I may update this entry from time to time as I get new information.

The way the table, below, is organized, the family is divide by subfamily, then tribe, then genus and species. Photos are from iNat and Bugguide for the most part. Click an image to get to the observation. Click the name to the left to get to the info page on that species. Additional notes are added in text, some with hyperlinks. By all means, post a comment if you notice information that is wrong. Additionally, if you have information not included here, please post that as well.

Important note: I am not an expert on Psychodidae. This document serves as a central place for me to gather notes from reading I have done on the family. Feel free to use it as a resource if you like, but it should be considered a secondary or tertiary resource.




Bruchomyiinae

Nemopalpus nearcticus
Notofairchildia zelandiae Endemic to New Zealand

Psychodinae

Maruinini

Maruina lanceolata
Maruina
Maruina
Paratelmatoscopus variegatus
Paratelmatoscopus

Mormiini

Brunettia alternata
Brunettia ishiharai
Brunettia Subgenus Atrichobrunettia

Paramormiini

Clogmia albipunctata Probably the most common species in the family, found all over the world.
Clogmia latipennis Has black down the center and back of head, unlike Clogmia rothschildi
Similar to Lepiseodina conspicua
Clogmia rothschildi Similar to Clogmia latipennis but hairs on head are all blond.
Eurygarka
Feuerborniella obscura
Lepiseodina Found in America
Lepiseodina conspicua Clogmia latipennis looks similar but is found in Italy.
Lepiseodina superba
Paramormia furcata Apparently, easily recognized by the distinct pattern of spots on the wings and pattern of light and dark segments on the antennae.
Paramormia ustulata Apparently, easily recognized by the distinct pattern of spots on the wings and pattern of light and dark segments on the antennae.
Peripsychoda fusca
Philosepedon

Pericomini

Clytocerus Adult males and females of Clytocerus are among the most easily recognized species of Psychodinae due to the extremely elongate scape and the distinct frontal setae alveoli arranged in two subcircular groups.
Clytocerus americana = americanus Clytocerus (B.) americanus is common throughout the eastern United States, from western Kentucky to eastern Maryland, and from Maine to southern Alabama. It has also been collected in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Washington, and Ontario (Quate 1955). A lack of records from the southwestern United States could be due to fewer collections, but probably indicates a lack of suitable habitat.

CurlerMoulton2012Clytocerus.pdf
describes a similar, smaller species, C. microlimnetes known from Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Kentucky.
Clytocerus splendidus Europe
Clytocerus ocellaris Europe
Clytocerus unidentified
Pericoma fuliginosa
Pericoma illustrata
Pericoma signata
Pericoma sp.
Pneumia trivialis
Pneumia
Satchelliella compta
Satchelliella mutua
Stupkaiella
Logima I will consider these as Psychoda for now.

https://www.aemnp.eu/data/article-1041/1022-41_0_213.pdf
Differential diagnosis: Genera Logima Eaton, 1904, Tinearia Schellenberg, 1803, Ypsydocha Ježek, 1983a, Psychoda Latreille, 1796 and Copropsychoda Vaillant, 1971 have antennae with 15 or 14 segments and there are mostly huge differences in their size of the last three antennal segments. On the other hand genera Psychodula Jažek, 1983a, Chodopsycha Ježek, 1983a, Psychomora Ježek, 1983a and Psychodocha Ježek, 1983a antennae are 16 segmented and there are mostly small differences in the size of the last three reduced antennal segments, however a swelling setae is not considered as a segment. Antennae both of genus Logima Eaton, 1904 and Copropsychoda Vaillant, 1971 14 segmented, remainders of one or more spines penultimate pseudoantennal segment. On the other hand genera Ypsychdocha Ježek, 1983a, Psychoda Latreille, 1796 and Tinearia Schellenberg, 1803 with 15 segmented antennae and spines or their remainders on penultimate antennal segment mostly missing. Antennal segment 12 with a narrowed part in genus Logima Eaton, 1904, more or less swollen part between fused segments 13 and 14 developed, both radial and medial forks of the wing veins uninterrupted. In genus Copropsychoda Vaillant, 1971 antennal segment 12 without a neck part, more or less swollen part between fused segments 13 and 14 missing, both radial and medial forks of the wing veins interrupted.

Distribution: 21 species in the world - Australian area (5), New Zealand area (1), Polynesian area (2), Indo-malayan area (7), Holarctic area (6).
Logima sigma See Psychoda sigma
Logima surcoufi See of Psychoda sigma

Psychodini

Psychoda acutipennis
Psychoda alternata Worldwide, originating in North America
Psychoda cinerea
Psychoda griscescens Image
Psychoda sigma For now I consider P. sigma, P. surcoufi, Logima sigma, and L. surcoufi to all refer to Psychoda sigma.
Psychoda
Quatiella

Setomimini

Setomima nitida
Tinearia Browse
Threticus bicolor
Tonnoiriella pulchra

Unidentified

Phlebotominae

Lutzomyia cayennensis
Micropygomyia vexator Click picture to see larger version. Flies are infesting snake habitat.
Lutzomyia sp.
Phlebotomus papatasi
Phlebotomus

Trichomyiinae

Trichomyia urbica
Trichomyia
Trichomyia
Publicado el lunes, 11 de enero de 2021 a las 11:11 PM por victorengel victorengel | 14 comentarios | Deja un comentario

jueves, 31 de diciembre de 2020

Sharpened images

I've decided to start using images sharpened with Topaz Sharpen AI. Rather than add text on each image stating it was sharpened with that tool, I decided to use a watermark. The linked observation has two copies of the same image, one sharpened with Topaz Sharpen AI and one not. I also removed some spots on the sharpened image.

My plan is to indicate such images are sharpened this way by including an underscore _ following my sig in the watermark. I'll additionally clean them up more than the standard images.

Publicado el jueves, 31 de diciembre de 2020 a las 07:22 PM por victorengel victorengel | 1 observación | 3 comentarios | Deja un comentario

viernes, 11 de septiembre de 2020

Xylobiops Identification

In North America, there are four species of Xylobiops. This journal entry will attempt to show how to distinguish them from one another. Two species have conspicuous hairs on the elytra. These are Xylobiops texanus (Horn) and Xylobiops sextuberculatus (LeConte). They can be distinguished from each other by the tubercles on the head. X. texanus has two in both sexes. X. sextuberculatus has 4 to 6 tubercles in the female and none in the male.

Xylobiops basilarus (Say) has no hair on the elytra and has a distinct separation between light (reddish) and dark colors. This gives it the common name red-shouldered bostrich. Xylobiops parilis (Lesne) also has no hair on the elytra.

The following is an illustration of something I've noticed but does not seem to be in the literature. It is useful for distinguishing the hairy group from the bald group when there is insufficient detail to see the hair.


The yellow lines are drawn at the base of the elytra and at the bend between the first set of spines. The green line is the distance between the yellow lines. The red line is the width of the insect. If the red line is longer than the green line, it is one of the hairy species. If the green line is longer than the red line, it is X. basilarus. I don't have data yet for X. parilis. So I don't know what category it fits in. If squares are drawn around the red and green lines, as illustrated, the difference is more obvious.

It looks like X. parilis can be distinguished by the fact the inner two pairs of tubercles on the elytra are blunt rather than sharp.

Following is a dichotomous key front in "A Revision of the North American Species of Beetles Belonging to the Family Bostrichidae", by W. S. Fisher, available online, digitized by Google.

  1. Dorsal surface of elytra (except apical declivity) without distinct pubescence, the yellow and black or brown areas conspicuously separated --- 2


    Dorsal surface of elytra (except along base) with distinct pubescence, the light and dark-brown areas not conspicuously separated --- 3

  2. Inner two pairs of tubercles along anterior margins of apical declivity of elytra acute or spinose at apices and coarsely punctured between tubercles, the surface of declivity coarsely, evenly punctured in fremale, with a few very coarse, deep punctures in male; front of head unarmed --- basilaris (Say)


    Inner two pairs of tubercles along anterior margins of apical declivity of elytra not spinose at apices, and not coarsely punctured between tubercles, the surface of declivity sparsely, finely, irregularly punctate in female, nearly impunctate in male; front of head with two media tubercles in both sexes --- parilis Lesne

  3. Apical declivity of elytra sparsely coarsely punctured; front of head usually with two media tubercles in both sexes --- texanus


    Apical declivity of elytra not, or very finely, punctured; front of head with four to six small tubercles in female, unarmed in the male --- sextuberculatus (LeConte)

Publicado el viernes, 11 de septiembre de 2020 a las 09:14 PM por victorengel victorengel | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

martes, 16 de junio de 2020

Battaristis nigratomella

I spent quite a bit of time over the past few days reading about Battaristis nigratomella and Battaristis concinnusella. I've come to the conclusion that these are the same species unless they can be more adequately separated with more data. For now, I will be treating them as the same and logging observations as B. nigratomella. Reading in the literature, there is some debate whether they are distinct species or not. The only difference apparently is the ground color of the base of the forewings, but even that is not clear.

I decided to look at data available at BOLD. For the entries labeled as one of these species, a phylogenetic tree created from that data shows a significant overlap. There are only a couple dozen total entries there, though. BOLD identifies 3 BINs in one of these species and 2 in the other. What happens if the same species is given two different species labels on BOLD? Will it create two separate BINs for them when unlabeled they would be in the same BIN? That's a question that comes to mind. So in reality the number of BINs would be some number between 3 and 5.

Looking at the whole genus, there is also intersection with entries labeled Mallaise6677.

Publicado el martes, 16 de junio de 2020 a las 05:54 PM por victorengel victorengel | 1 observación | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

lunes, 25 de mayo de 2020

Beetles of 2020

This post will serve as a log of beetle observations sorted by family and seen in 2020.

Anthribidae


Fungus Weevils
Anthribidae - Anthribidae sp. Anthribidae - Euparius marmoreus Anthribidae - Trigonorhinus limbatus The one on the far left flew into my eye. That picture shows it sitting on the pad of my finger.

Attelabidae


Leaf Rolling Weevils
Attelabidae - Homoeolabus analis Attelabidae - Homoeolabus analis Attelabidae - Homoeolabus analis

Bostrichidae


Horned Powder-post Beetles, False Powderpost Beetles, Branch-and-Twig Borers, Augur Beetles
Bostrichidae - Lichenophanes bicornis Bostrichidae - Melalgus plicatus Bostrichidae - Xylobiops basilaris

Cantharidae


Soldier Beetles
Cantharidae - Rhagonycha sp. Cantharidae - Rhagonycha sp.

Carabidae


Ground Beetles
Carabidae - Amara sp. Carabidae - Calathus sp. Carabidae - Harpalinae sp. I have no idea how to tell most of these apart. I'm relying on the IDs from made by others. I suppose I'll add notes on how to identify them when I learn how.
Carabidae - Lebia viridis. Carabidae - Notiobia sp. Carabidae - Platynina sp.
Carabidae - Plochionus sp. Carabidae - Selenophorus sp. Carabidae - Stenolophus dissimilis

Cerambycidae


Longhorn Beetles
Cerambycidae - Anelaphus debilis Cerambycidae - Euderces reichei Cerambycidae - Hypexilis pallida
Cerambycidae - Obrium maculatum Cerambycidae - Phoracanthini sp. Cerambycidae - Rhopalophora longipes
Cerambycidae - Smodicum cucujiforme Cerambycidae - Sternidius mimeticus

Chrysomelidae


Leaf Beetles
Chrysomelidae - Adoxini sp. Chrysomelidae - Adoxini sp. Chrysomelidae - Algarobius sp.
Chrysomelidae - Brachypnoea lecontei Chrysomelidae - Derospidea brevicollis Chrysomelidae - Diabrotica undecimpunctata
Chrysomelidae - Eumolpinae sp. Chrysomelidae - Iphimeites sp. Chrysomelidae - Rhabdopterus sp.
Chrysomelidae - Xanthonia picturata Chrysomelidae - Xanthonia sp. Chrysomelidae - unknown sp.

Claridae


Checkered Beetles
Claridae - Chariessa vestita

Coccinellidae


Lady Beetles
Coccinellidae - Coccinella semptempunctata Coccinellidae - Harmonia axyridis Coccinellidae - Harmonia axyridis
Coccinellidae - Harmonia axyridis larva

Cryptophagidae


Silken Fungus Beetles
Cryptophagidae - Cryptophagini sp. Cryptophagidae - Cryptophagus setulosus

Curculionidae


Snout and Bark Beetles, Weevils
Curculionidae - Conotrachelus nenuphar Curculionidae - Conotrachelus sp. Curculionidae - Dorytomus mucidus
Curculionidae - Lignyodes horridulus Curculionidae - Sitona californius

Dytiscidae


Predaceous Diving Beetles
Dytiscidae - Copelatus chevrolati Dytiscidae - Copelatus glyphicus

Elateradae


Click Beetles, Wire Worms
Elateridae - Aeolus sp. Elateridae - Alaus lusciosus Elateridae - Anchastus rufus
Elateridae - Dipropus simplex Elateridae - Esthesopus parcus Elateridae - Megapenthes insignis
Elateridae - Melanotus sp. Elateridae - Selonodon sp.

Erotylidae


Pleasing Fungus Beetles
Erotylidae - Pharaxonotha kirshii

Eucnemidae


False Click Beetles
Eucnemidae - unidentified sp. These are distinguished from click beetles by the angle of attachment between first and second segments of the antennae

Heteroceridae


Variegated Mud-loving Beetles
Heteroceridae - Heterocerus sp. Heteroceridae - Tropicus pusillus

Hydrophilidae


Water Scavenger Beetles
Hydrophilidae - Chaetarthria pallida Hydrophilidae - Tropisternus lateralis ssp. nimbatus I would never have guessed the Chaetarthria was in this family.

Laemophloeidae


Line Flat Bark Beetles
Laemophloeidae - Laemophloeus terminalis

Lampyridae


Lightning Beetles, Fireflies
Latridiidae - Photinus sp. Latridiidae - Photinus sp.

Latridiidae


Minute Brown Scavenger Beetles
Latridiidae - Melanophthalma sp. Latridiidae - Melanophthalma sp. Both images are likely the same species. The second one is included to show the insect in flight.

Melandryidae


False Darkling Beetles
Melandryidae - Osphya varians Melandryidae - Symphora flavicollis

Mycetophagidae


Hairy Fungus Beetles
Mycetophagidae - Litargus tetraspilotus Mycetophagidae - Typhaea stercorea

Nitidulidae


Sap-Feeding Beetles
Nitidulidae - Omosita nearctica

Oedemeridae


False Blister Beetles
Oedemeridae - unidentified Oedemeridae - Asclerini sp. Oedemeridae - Sparedrus aspersus

Ptinidae


Dethwatch, Spider, and Wood-borer Beetles
Ptinidae - Calymmaderus Ptinidae - Stegobium paniceum Ptinidae - Tricorynus

Scarabidae


Scarab Beetles
Scarabidae - Diplotaxis sp. Scarabidae - Diplotaxis sp. Scarabidae - Phyllophaga sp. Phyllophaga sp. are larger than Diplotaxis sp. Generally, if the size is over 12mm, it's Phyllophaga sp.
Scarabidae - Ataenius sp. Scarabidae - Cotinis nitida It's likely that several species of both Diplotaxis an Phyllophaga have observations, but they've not been identified to species, so only obviously different ones are shown.

Scirtidae


Marsh Beetles
Scirtidae - .Contacyphon variabilis Scirtidae - .Sacodes pulchella Scirtidae - .Sacodes thoracica

Scraptiidae


False Flower Beetles
Staphylinidae - Anaspis sp. Staphylinidae - Diclidia sp. Staphylinidae - Diclidia sp.

Staphylinidae


Rove Beetles
Staphylinidae - . Aleochara sp. Staphylinidae - . Lathrobiini sp. Staphylinidae - . Tachyporus sp.

Tenebrionidae


Rove Beetles
Tenebrionidae - Alleculina sp. Tenebrionidae - Alleculina sp. Tenebrionidae - Eleodes goryi
Tenebrionidae - Tribolium confusum

Trogidae


Hide Beetles
Trogidae - Omorgus suberosus
Publicado el lunes, 25 de mayo de 2020 a las 11:30 PM por victorengel victorengel | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

Platynota rostrana and Platynota flavedana

It has come to my attention that it is only the females of Platynota rostrana that have the distinctive square shape. The males actually look more like Platinota flavedana.

Male Platynota flavedana has a tapered shape and is usually quite dark. Male Platynota rostrana has the shape of P. flavedana Female Platynota rostrana has a squarish shape. Here you see both a male and female P. rostrana and a P. flavedana.
Publicado el lunes, 25 de mayo de 2020 a las 12:21 AM por victorengel victorengel | 3 observaciones | 5 comentarios | Deja un comentario

martes, 21 de abril de 2020

Unusual sighting: moth with three antennae

One of the most interesting moths this week is this Cacotherapia flexilinealis. It's unusual because it has three antennae. I suspect some injury to have occurred during the growth period of the antennae causing it to grow in two different directions.

Publicado el martes, 21 de abril de 2020 a las 10:12 PM por victorengel victorengel | 1 observación | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

Weekly Moths

This will be my first journal post, so may be somewhat of an experiment. It seems that having a weekly summary of the new moths could be a good idea for journaling. I am keeping a tally of moths seen for the year. It would have been a good idea to start the journaling at the same time. However, since I did not, I'll just include new moths for the year seen over the past week. For the purpose of consistency, I'll define a week as local Sunday through Saturday. So we're already into the next week. Moths seen this week are:

  • Archips argyrospila
  • Archips grisea
  • Archips semiferana
  • Argyrotaenia quercifoliana
  • Blastobasis sp.
  • Clepsis peritana
  • Clepsis virescana
  • Cobubatha dividua
  • Costaconvexa centrostrigaria
  • Cyclophora nanaria
  • Dichomeris ligulella
  • Eupithecia sp.
  • Gretchena bolliana
  • Hypena scabra
  • Idia americalis
  • Melipotis indomita
  • Nematocampa resistaria
  • Nomophila nearctica
  • Orthonama obstipata
  • Panopoda carneicosta
  • Parapediasia teterrellus
  • Symmetrischema striatella
  • Tripudia quadrifera
  • Udea rubigalis

I suppose I should add something interesting. I've noticed that Orthonama obstipata sometimes rests with wings held out flat and sometimes with them raised . I'm curious about this behavior but have not researched it yet. I'm including an observation of each, mostly to test out that feature.

Publicado el martes, 21 de abril de 2020 a las 10:00 PM por victorengel victorengel | 2 observaciones | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario