Thanasimus formicarius Linnaeus, 1758**

Webster, Reginald P., Sweeney, Jon D. & DeMerchant, Ian, 2012, New Coleoptera records from New Brunswick, Canada: Trogossitidae, Cleridae, and Melyridae, with an addition to the fauna of Nova Scotia, ZooKeys 179, pp. 141-156 : 150

Thanasimus formicarius Linnaeus, 1758** Map 8

Material examined.

Nova Scotia, Halifax Co., (Halifax) Point Pleasant Park, 44.6226°N, 63.5689°W, 11.VII.2001, 8.VIII.2001, J. Sweeney, Lindgren funnel traps, tree blend lure (2, AFC, CNC). Quebec, Berthierville, late 1940's, Frère Adrien Robert (UMC).

Collection and habitat data.

In Europe, Thanasimus formicarius is a well-known predator of bark beetles ( Weslien and Regnander 1992). Two adults from Nova Scotia were captured in Lindgren funnel traps baited with tree blend lure (spruce volatiles) and EtOH deployed in a red spruce stand. Adults were collected during July and August.

Distribution in Canada and Alaska.

QC, NS. This old-world species was introduced into North America to control the bark beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann in 1892 and in the late 1900s ( Opitz 2002). It is not known if this species is established in Nova Scotia or if these specimens represents an interception of individuals that may have emerged from softwood packing material used as dunnage in shipping containers arriving in the port of Halifax from Europe. No additional specimens have been collected at or near this site despite extensive trapping from 2001-2011 in the Halifax–Dartmouth area with similarly baited funnel traps or black-panel intercept traps (Alpha Scents, Portland, OR). There is also a specimen in the Ouellet-Robert Collection ( Université de Montréal) from Berthierville, Quebec, collected by A. Robert in the 1940s during his studies on Dutch elm disease (Serge Laplante, personal communication). There have been no additional specimens reported from Quebec.