Phelister brevistriatus Casey, 1916

Caterino, Michael S. & Tishechkin, Alexey K., 2019, A revision of the Phelisterhaemorrhous species group (Coleoptera, Histeridae, Exosternini), ZooKeys 854, pp. 41-88 : 56-57

Phelister brevistriatus Casey, 1916 Figs 2, 4; Map 2

Phelister brevistriatus Casey, 1916: 233.

Type material.

Holotype of undetermined sex: "Tucson, Arizon, Wickham" / "Casey bequest 1925" / "TYPE USNM 38452" / "brevistriatus Csy.", examined in 2011 (USNM).

Description.

Length: 1.81-2.29 mm (avg. 2.03 mm); width: 1.50-1.89 mm (avg. 1.69 mm). Body uniformly dark rufescent to piceous, elongate oval, widest just behind midline; frons finely but distinctly punctulate; supraorbital stria complete, fine across vertex; frontal stria well impressed along inner margin of eyes, continuing mediad above epistoma, but variably interrupted, often in a dense, linear field of punctures along frontal midline, ends generally curved upward, rarely complete and simple; labrum transverse, at most weakly emarginate apically; mandibles both with strong tooth along incisor margin; pronotum with sides subparallel at bases, weakly curved inward to front, disk very finely punctate at middle but rather coarsely so in lateral thirds; prescutellar impression weak, generally present; lateral and anterior marginal striae continuous, the anterior diverging slightly from the margin and crenulate; lateral submarginal striae absent; elytra with single, complete epipleural striae; outer subhumeral stria present in apical half only; inner subhumeral stria absent; dorsal elytral striae 1-4 complete, 5th present in apical half and represented by a basal puncture, sutural stria slightly longer than fifth; propygidium almost uniformly coarsely punctate, punctures separated by less than their widths; pygidium much more finely and sparsely punctate; prosternal lobe shape evenly rounded, with more or less complete marginal stria; prosternal keel striae separate basally, converging between coxae, thence diverging weakly, usually connected by anterior arch, males with striae more widely separated, and punctures between striae slightly denser and more conspicuous; anterior mesoventral margin weakly produced; marginal mesoventral stria complete, smooth; mesometaventral stria more distinctly crenulate, arching anteriad to middle of mesoventrite; metaventral disk impunctate, lateral stria nearly complete to inner corner of metacoxa; postmesocoxal stria extending posterolaterad, wavering, becoming fragmented posteriad, ending well short of metepisternum; abdominal ventrite 1 with complete inner and fragmentary outer lateral striae, disk impunctate at middle, increasingly punctate to sides; protibia with apex obliquely truncate, outer margin weakly rounded, bearing 6-7 prominent, marginal spines; meso- and metatibiae weakly expanded to apex, mesotibiae with ca. six marginal spines, more prominent toward apex, metatibia with distinct spines along apical third of margin; aedeagus with distinct ventral process near middle, tegmen in dorsal view gradually widened toward apex, apically abruptly narrowed, with short, rather wide apical emargination; median lobe with long, basal apodemes distinctly thicker toward gonopore, nearly as long as tegmen.

Remarks.

Of the Phelister species occurring in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, this species can generally be recognized by its frontal stria, which, while usually complete, tends to connect to a series of median longitudinal frontal punctures. These are not always present, however. It seems to be closely related to the two following species, both of which have distinctive characters of their own. Phelister sonorae has modified protarsal claws (perhaps in the male only), while Phelister warneri has more finely impressed dorsal striae, and more finely spinose middle and hind tibiae.

Biology.

Label data reveal varied habits for this species. Many specimens were collected in cow dung. A few specimens were taken directly from kangaroo rat ( Dipodomys Gray) burrows, and many others were collected using black pitfall traps in the vicinity of Dipodomys burrows, so facultative mammal inquilinism appears likely. Several specimens were also taken from the debris piles of leafcutter ants ( Atta mexicana (Smith) and Atta sp.)

Distribution.

This species ranges from the southwestern United States through Mexico into northern Central America. Records: EL SALVADOR: San Salvador, MEXICO: Chiapas, Colima, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora; USA: Arizona: Cochise, Gila, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz; California: Imperial, Riverside; New Mexico: Hidalgo.