Acrotona subpygmaea (Bernhauer, 1909)

Majka, Christopher & Klimaszewski, Jan, 2010, Contributions to the knowledge of the Aleocharinae (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, ZooKeys 46 (46), pp. 15-39 : 20

Acrotona subpygmaea (Bernhauer, 1909)

NOVA SCOTIA: Halifax County: Point Pleasant Park, 20.IX.2001, C.G. Majka, coniferous forest, in bark of dead white pine (1, CGMC).

Acrotona subpygmaea is newly recorded in Nova Scotia. In Canada it has been previously recorded in New Brunswick; in the United States there are records from Massachusetts and Indiana ( Klimaszewski et al. 2005a). In New Brunswick it was collected in a red spruce ( Picea rubens Sarg. ) forest ( Klimaszewski et al. 2005a).

The status of Acrotona subpygmaea , however, is subject to some question. In most respects it appears to be identical to Acrotona avia (Casey) . Th ere is an unresolved problem in determining the status of these two species names in that while all the external and internal structures of both male and female types of A. avia are intact, in the case of the (unpublished) lectotype of A. subpygmaea designated by V. Gusarov, the median lobe of the adeagus of the male is missing and the female syntype has a collapsed spermatheca, making it difficult to determine whether these are distinct species or whether A. avia should be designated as a junior synonym of A. subpygmaea . J. Klimaszewski and collaborators are in the process of revising the eastern Canadian species of the genus Acrotona . Th e present identification should be regarded as tentative, pending this revision.