Quedius fulgidus (Fabricius, 1793)

Brunke, Adam J. & Marshall, Stephen A., 2011, Contributions to the faunistics and bionomics of Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) in northeastern North America: discoveries made through study of the University of Guelph Insect Collection, Ontario, Canada, ZooKeys 75, pp. 29-68 : 52

Quedius fulgidus (Fabricius, 1793)

Materials.

CANADA: ON: Huron Co., Seaforth, 7-VII-1955, D. Keys (1).

Diagnosis.

Quedius fulgidus may be distinguished from other northeastern Quedius by the combination of: elytra evenly punctate; labrum distinctly bilobed; eyes distinctly shorter than temples; antennomeres one to three not distinctly paler than others; distal antennomeres only slightly transverse; pronotum with sublateral row of punctures longer than dorsal row.

This Palaearctic species was first correctly recognized in North America by Horn (1878) who synonymised Quedius iracundus ( Say 1834), a species described from North America, with Quedius fulgidus ; this synonymy was later confirmed by Smetana (1971). The first verifiable specimens from North America were collected in 1874 from Iowa (Smetana) but as Quedius iracundus (=Q. fulgidus)was described in 1834 from Indiana, Quedius fulgidus has surely been present long before 1874. Currently, Quedius fulgidus is known from Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin ( Smetana 1971), and Tennessee ( Smetana 1978). Herein we newly record this species from eastern Canada (Ontario) (Map 38). This species is strongly synanthropic in North America ( Smetana 1971) but occurs regularly in caves in the more southern portion of its range ( Peck and Thayer 2003). In its native range Quedius fulgidus is widely distributed in the Palaearctic region ( Smetana in Löbl and Smetana 2004). Quedius fulgidus appears to be uncommon in the northeastern extreme of its range compared to its close relative Quedius cruentus , another exotic species that was recently established on the continent (see above) and has since become extremely common.