Bibloplectus minutissimus ( Aube , 1833)

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

Bibloplectus minutissimus ( Aube, 1833) Figure 3

Distribution.

Native to the West Palaearctic region, widespread in Europe ( Schülke and Smetana 2015). Adventive in the Nearctic region (Ontario, Canada).

Canadian records.

Ontario: Peterborough, 24-May-2015 to 30-May-2015 (1 ex, CBG); Markham, 24-Jun-2017 to 25-Jun-2017 (1 ex, CBG).

Diagnostic information.

Body length 0.9-1.1 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 3A . Female apical tergite with distinctive projection ( Fig. 3A ). Aedeagus as in Fig. 3B ( Löbl 1960).

Bionomic notes.

Pearce (1957) writes that this species can be collected from the base of grasses and under stones along sandy river banks and in flood debris in Britain. Unlike other European ( Pearce 1957) or North American ( Owens and Carlton 2017) species of the genus, it does not occur in deep leaf litter or damp moss. Both Pearce (1957) and Besuchet (1955) state that the species is infrequently collected but this may be due to the extremely small size and unknown microhabitat requirements. One of the Canadian specimens was collected with a Malaise trap on farmland, the other was extracted from soil and leaf litter from a mixed habitat of farmland and forest.

Comments.

Only female specimens were available from the Nearctic, but they share identical barcode haplotypes with a specimen of Bibloplectus minutissimus sampled from Germany. They were also morphologically consistent with the diagnostic characters listed above. In the Palaearctic fauna, females of this species can be recognized by a combination of small size, pale body, temples clearly longer than eyes, and apical tergite produced into a long spine ( Besuchet 1955). In the Nearctic region, males are needed for an accurate morphological identification (see Chandler 1990; Owens and Carlton 2017) as many undescribed species are still expected.

Figures

Figures 3, 4. 3 Bibloplectus minutissimus (Aube) 3 A habitus 3 B aedeagus, ventral view, re-drawn from Loebl (1960) 4 Mycetoporus reichei Pandelle 4 A habitus 4 B aedeagus, ventral and lateral view, M. Kocian. Scale bars: 0.25 mm (3 A), 0.1 mm (3 B), 1.0 mm (4 A), 0.2 mm (4 B).