Platyceroides (Platyceroides) californicus (Casey)

Platycerus californicus Casey, 1885: 331, original combination.

Platycerus parvicollis Casey, 1889: 164, original combination. Revised synonymy.

Type series. Platycerus californicus holotype female (USNM) labeled: a) “Cal.”; b) “ CASEY / bequest / 1925”; c) on orange paper, “ TYPE USNM / [36209]”; d) handwritten “ californicus / Csy.”; e) “ Platyceroides californicus / (Casey, 1885) / det. M.J. Paulsen 2013”.

Platycerus parvicollis lectotype male (USNM), here designated, labeled: a) handwritten “ parvicollis / Cas.”; b) “CASEY / bequest / 1925”; c) on orange paper, “ TYPE USNM / [36208]”; d) “ Platyceroides californicus / (Casey, 1885) / det. M.J. Paulsen 2015 ”; e) on red paper, “ Platycerus / pacificus Casey / Lectotype / det. MJ Paulsen”.

The female holotype of P. californicus is labeled simply “Cal.”, although Casey (1885) fortunately indicated that the specimen was “captured in a dusty wagon road” in Eureka, Humboldt County, California . Although two species of the nominal subgenus are located at coastal, low elevations near Eureka, the holotype has highly polished elytra and cannot be the female of P. pampinatus, new species, described above. Thus the holotype female belongs to the same taxon later described by Casey from a male specimen as P. parvicollis . For this reason I am considering P. parvicollis, which I had previously considered to constitute a valid species, to be a junior synonym of P. californicus .

The original description of P. parvicollis lists two specimens, although only one (now the lectotype) is present in the USNM. In the FMNH collection two male specimens are labeled as the type of P. parvicollis, and one female was invalidly designated as the allotype by Benesh. Label data indicates that all three specimens are much too recent to have been part of the original type series and are not types; furthermore all three specimens are actually P. infernus . The second female specimen in the UNSM that was part of the Casey bequest that was identified as P. californicus by him is a paratype of the new species P. pampinatus described above.

Distribution (Fig. 27). CALIFORNIA: HUMBOLDT: Arcata; Blocksburg; Bull Creek-South Fork Eel River; Dyerville; Eureka; Fieldbrook; Fort Seward; Hydesville; Redcrest; High Rock/Humboldt Redwoods State Park; Van Duzen River.

Remarks. Compared with P. thoracicus, males of P. californicus (Fig. 9 A) have shinier, lighter-colored elytra that contrast with their distinctly darker pronotal disc with lighter margins, smaller antennal club size, and the clearly distinct apex of the flagellum of the male genitalia (Fig. 9 B–C). This species lighter coloration is similar to that of P. aeneus from much farther north, but in that species the posterior pronotal angles are obtuse and the genitalia have a bifurcate apex medially.