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New
Nebraska records: Aphodius peculiosus Schmidt
Collection
of beetles from mammal burrows and in flight at dusk in 2004
yielded a previously unrecorded species of Nebraska dung beetle:
Aphodius peculiosus Schmidt.
The species is known from Texas (Riley & Wolfe 2003) and
Wisconsin (Kriska & Young 2002). A similar species, A.
scabriceps LeConte, is known to occur in Nebraska
(Ratcliffe 1991), but the two species can be easily differentiated
based on the form of the clypeus. Both species possess a granulate,
rugose clypeus, but in A. peculiosus, the clypeus is
covered with setae, while in A. scabriceps the clypeus
is lacking setae.
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Aphodius
peculiosus
Schmidt,1922
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Diagnostic
trait:
Rugose, setose clypeus |
Lateral view of clypeal setae |
| Other
traits: |
Length
3.l - 5 mm. Head and pronotum dark brown to light brown; elytron entirely
yellow or brownish yellow with apical declivity yellow. Elytron pubescent
on apical declivity . |
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Distribution |
Specimens
are known from Texas (Riley & Wolfe 2003), Wisconsin (Kriska &
Young 2002), and now Nebraska. Primarily associated with rodent burrows.
In Nebraska, the species was collected in 2004 in Keith, Arthur, and
Greeley counties. In 2005, this species was collected in Dundy, Garden, and Sheridan counties (Paulsen 2006). |
| Locality
Records- |
45 specimens examined: Arthur Co.(13): Arapaho Prairie; Greeley Co.(26):
10 mi N. of Greeley; Keith Co. (6): 6 mi S. of Paxton. |
| MAP |
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| Temporal
Distribution- |
OCTOBER
(75); NOVEMBER (19);
RANGE: 3 OCT to 17 NOV |
| Remarks- |
Collected
in flight at dusk, in dung-baited pitfall traps in pocket gopher Geomys
bursarius (Shaw) burrows, and inside the entrances of prairie
dog Cynomys ludovicianus (Ord) burrows. |
Kriska,
N.L. and D.K. Young. 2002.
An annotated checklist of Wisconsin Scarabaeoidea (Coleoptera). Insecta
Mundi 16(1-3): 31-48.
Paulsen, M.J. 2006. A new species and new records of Aphodius Illiger (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae) from mammal burrows in Nebraska. Insecta Mundi 20(1/2): 95-100.
Ratcliffe,
B.C. 1991. The Scarab Beetles of Nebraska.
Bulletin of the Univ. of Nebr.
State Museum. 12: 1-333.
Riley,
E.G. and C.S. Wolfe. 2003. An annotated checklist of the Scarabaeoidea
of Texas (Coleoptera). Southwestern Entomologist. Supplement NO. 26: 1-37.
Acknowledgements:
Specimens examined are located in the collections of M.J. Paulsen. Thanks
also to Robert Gordon for generously verifying specimen
identifications.
Paulsen,
M.J. 2002 |
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