Atheta vaga (Heer, 1839)

Pentinsaari, Mikko, Anderson, Robert, Borowiec, Lech, Bouchard, Patrice, Brunke, Adam, Douglas, Hume, Smith, Andrew B. T. & Hebert, Paul D. N., 2019, DNA barcodes reveal 63 overlooked species of Canadian beetles (Insecta, Coleoptera), ZooKeys 894, pp. 53-150 : 53

Atheta vaga (Heer, 1839) Figure 7

Distribution.

Native to the Palaearctic region, widespread in Europe and reported from Algeria, Tunisia, East and West Siberia, and Mongolia ( Schülke and Smetana 2015). Adventive in the Nearctic region (California, United States, and Nova Scotia, Canada).

Canadian records.

Nova Scotia: Halifax, 30-May-2013 to 06-Jul-2013 (2 exx, CBG).

Diagnostic information.

Body length 2.5-2.8 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 7A . Aedeagus as in Fig. 7B . Spermatheca as in Atheta fanatica Casey ( Fig. 7D ).

Bionomic notes.

Palm (1970) wrote that the species is common at sap runs on trees, on carrion, in fungi, in compost, and in the nests of birds, including ravens and birds of prey. It consistently occurs in a wide variety of bird nests in Europe ( Hicks 1959). Its sister species, native Nearctic A. fanatica Casey, 1910, apparently lives in the same way ( Klimaszewski et al. 2018) and has been collected in artificial owl nest boxes ( Majka et al. 2006, Webster et al. 2009). The Canadian specimens were collected with a Malaise trap in a forested part of Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Comments.

First reported from North America by Muona (1984) from California (without specimen data including date). This is the first record from eastern North America and for Canada. Populations in eastern and western North America may represent separate introductions, and dissection and sequencing of further material may reveal a more detailed introduction history. With the exception of its native sister species, A. fanatica , A. vaga can be easily recognized by the shape of the median lobe in lateral view and spermatheca. It can be distinguished from A. fanatica by the less strongly sinuate tubus of the median lobe in lateral view (compare with Fig. 7C ). The spermathecae of the two species are identical. The close relationship and separate species status of the two species is confirmed by two well-separated BINs. Although the two examined vouchers from Canada are females, we are confident of their identity based on identical DNA barcode haplotypes shared with European material of A. vaga . Atheta fanatica forms a separate BIN cluster (BOLD:ACL9881) which shows ca. 10% divergence from A. vaga .

Figures

Figures 7, 8. 7 A Atheta vaga (Heer), habitus 7 B Atheta vaga, aedeagus, lateral view 7 C Atheta fanatica Casey, aedeagus, lateral view 7 D Atheta fanatica, spermatheca 8 Myllaena infuscata Kraatz 8 A habitus 8 B aedeagus, ventral view 8 C aedeagus, lateral view 8 D spermatheca 8 B-D V. Assing. Scale bars: 1.0 mm (7 A), 0.2 mm (7 B-D), 0.5 mm (8 A), 0.1 mm (8 B-D).