Selatosomus Stephens, 1830

Etzler, Frank E. & Seibert, Catherine E., 2022, Checklist of the Elateridae (Coleoptera) of Montana, USA, with Taxonomic Notes, The Coleopterists Bulletin 76 (3), pp. 449-477 : 471

Selatosomus Stephens, 1830 .

This genus includes species formerly placed in Ctenicera and Ludius . All subgenera that appear in the generic revision by Tarnawski (1995) have since been raised to genus level ( Johnson 2002; Schimmel et al. 2015). A major issue to our understanding of this genus is the S. aeripennis species-group ( Brown 1935b), which includes species of economic importance. The S. aeripennis species-group was last reviewed by Brown (1935b) and these species are absent from the generic revision by Tarnawski (1995). However, their placement within Selatosomus in this checklist is based on similarities to Palearctic species in Selatosomus sensu stricto derived from personal observations that include shape of the male genitalia and comparisons to the type species of the genus, Selatosomus aeneus (Linnaeus) . This species group is difficult to identify at the species level. For the purpose of this checklist, we have combined two species with black elytra with those having metallic elytra: Selatosomus destructor (Brown, 1935) is combined with Selatosomus aeripennis (Kirby, 1837) and Selatosomus carbo (LeConte, 1853) is combined with Selatosomus semimetallicus (Walker, 1866) . The elytral metallic color variation in Montana specimens of S. aeripennis , including within populations, is so great that recognizing S. destructor as distinct would be problematic. Additionally, there is little variation between populations in the CO1 barcoding locus, which supports this combination ( Etzler et al. 2014). The similarity of S. carbo and S. semimetallicus has been noted since Brown (1935b) and the aedeagi between these two forms is nearly identical ( Brown 1935b). We refrain from making these combinations (synonymies) official until the genus has been revised for North America. “ Ctenicera sp. nr. montana (Brown)” in Seibert (1993) is Selatosomus castanicolor (Fall) , based on comparison to type in MCZC, and represents a northern range extension for the species.

We also include members of the S. cruciatus -species group ( Brown 1935a) within Selatosomus following Johnson (1992), which are sometimes placed in the genus Pristilophus Latreille, 1834 ( Tarnawski 1995, treated as a subgenus of Selatosomus ). One species, Selatosomus festivus (LeConte) , is close in appearance to the eastern species Selatosomus pulcher (LeConte) , which has been recorded as far west as British Columbia ( Bousquet et al. 2013). However, S. festivus in Montana is quite variable in its elytral patterns, making it difficult to use the species key from Tarnawski (1995), which represents a slight reworking of the key from Brown (1935a). We feel a more detailed study is required to determine the actual range of variation within each species and thus, only S. festivus is recognized here from Montana. The genus Selatosomus , particularly for North America, requires revision.