Meotica Mulsant & Rey, 1873

Gusarov, Vladimir I., 2002, A revision of Nearctic species of the genus Geostiba Thomson, 1858 (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae), Zootaxa 81, pp. 1-88 : 84-85

Meotica Mulsant & Rey, 1873

Meotica Mulsant & Rey, 1873: 174 (Type species: Meotica parasita Mulsant & Rey, 1873 , by subsequent designation (Blackwelder 1952)).

Sipaliella Casey, 1911: 159 (Type species: Sipalia filaria Casey, 1911 , by monotypy) (as subgenus of Sipalia Mulsant & Rey, 1853 ), syn. nov.

Sipaliella: Fenyes, 1920: 252 (as subgenus of Sipalia ).

Sipaliella: Bernhauer & Scheerpeltz, 1926: 603 (as subgenus of Sipalia ).

Sipaliella: Blackwelder, 1952 : (as subgenus of Evanystes Gistel, 1856 ).

Sipaliella: Seevers, 1978: 129 (as valid genus in subtribe Geostibina Seevers, 1978).

Sipaliella: Ashe in Newton, Thayer, Ashe & Chandler, 2000: 371 (as valid genus in subtribe Geostibina Seevers, 1978).

Because Sipalia filaria Casey, 1911 , the type species of Sipaliella , is conspecific with Meotica pallens (Redtenbacher) (see below), a species known from Europe, the name Sipaliella is here placed in synonymy with Meotica . Meotica pallens is only superficially similar to Geostiba in having small eyes and short elytra and belongs to a different tribe ( Oxypodini Thomson, 1859 ).

Two other European species of Meotica recorded in North America are M. exilis (Knoch in Gravenhorst, 1806) ( Bernhauer & Scheerpeltz 1926; Seevers 1978) and M. apicalis G.Benick, 1953 ( Muona 1984) . The latter record is not reflected in the recently published guide to North American staphylinids ( Newton et al. 2000). Because M. exilis had been recorded in North America before the revision of Meotica was published ( Muona 1991), the record requires reconfirmation.

The species of Meotica have the tarsal formula 5­5­5 and the genus appears in Key B for the aleocharine genera by Ashe (Newton et al. 2000). The entry for Sipaliella should be deleted from Key J, and the couplets 26 and 27 can be replaced by the following single couplet:

26(21) Elytra distinctly longer than pronotum ................................................................. 28 – Elytra subequal to, or shorter than pronotum ....................................................... 29