Sepedophilus marshami (Stephens, 1832)

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 : 34-36

Sepedophilus marshami (Stephens, 1832)

Materials.

UNITED STATES: NH: Coos Co., Jefferson, under bark, 20-IV-2010, T. Murray (1).

CANADA: ON: Essex Co., Kingsville, 14-V-1973, R. Roughly (1); Waterloo Reg., Blair, RARE, Cruickston Creek, yellow pan traps, 15 to 20-VI-2006, S.A. Marshall and M. Bergeron (1); Blair, Dickie Settlement Rd. nr. WhistleBear golf course, 43.373, -80.400, hedgerow, pitfall, 13-X-2009 (1), 10-XI-2009 (1), A. Brunke;Blair, Fountain St. S. nr Speed River, 43.391, -80.373, hedgerow, pitfall, 13-X-2009 (1), 10-XI-2009 (1);Blair, Whistlebare Rd. and Township Rd.1, 43.372, -80.362, hedgerow near soybean field, pitfall trap, 2-XI-2010 (2); Wellington Co., Arkell, 27-IX-1986, L. Work (1); Belwood Lake, lake margin, fallen log overhang, 3-VI-2008, S.A. Marshall (1); Eramosa, Wellington County Rds. 124 and 29, 43.615, -80.215, hedgerow, pitfall, 4-V-2010, A. Brunke (1); Guelph, 19-V-1981, G.M. Grant (1); Guelph, in rotten wood, 20-IV-2007, S.P.L. Luk (1); Guelph, Preservation Park, under bark, 21-IX-2010, S.P.L. Luk (1).

Diagnosis.

Sepedophilus marshami may be distinguished from all other members of the genus in eastern North America except Sepedophilus testaceus by the following combination of characters: body size large (>2.3mm from clypeus to elytral apex); tergite seven with a white, apical, palisade fringe and at least one pair of bristles; elytra reddish but without distinct, reddish basal markings; middle-tibia with two apical spines ( Campbell 1976). It differs from Sepedophilus testaceus , another exotic species in North America, by the distinctly elongate seventh antennomere, which is subquadrate to weakly transverse in Sepedophilus testaceus . Specimens of Sepedophilus testaceus with rather reddish elytra do exist but these individuals are uniformly pale, while in Sepedophilus marshami the pronotum is distinctly darker than the elytra.

This exotic, Palaearctic species was first collected in North America in Quebec in 1959 ( Campbell 1976) and has since been detected in Nova Scotia ( Campbell 1976) and New Brunswick ( Majka and Klimaszewski 2008a). It was listed as questionably present in Ontario ( Klimaszewski et al. 2010) but herein we confirm its widespread occurrence in the province as early as 1973 (Map 5). We also newly record Sepedophilus marshami for the United States (New Hampshire). This species is widespread in the Palaearctic region ( Smetana in Löbl and Smetana 2004). In the Nearctic region, Sepedophilus marshami is typically collected from leaf litter and under loose, fungusy bark in disturbed woodland fragments although it also inhabits debris along freshwater and marine shorelines ( Majka et al. 2008) and open areas including raspberry fields and woodland edges ( Levesque and Levesque 1995).