Sericospilus glabratus
From Species-ID
Ordo: Coleoptera
Familia: Scarabaeidae
Name
- Sericospilus glabratus (Broun, 1893) Wikispecies link
Notes
- there are only two published specimen records for this species, both from South Auckland, New Zealand
- many species of this genus appear to have very restricted distributions
- this species and S. watti (described from Great Barrier Island, and only known with certainty from there) are the only described species in this genus with a trilamellate antennal club in both sexes (all other species have a quadrilamellate club in the male)
- I have seen males with trilamellate clubs also from Waipoua Forest (1 specimen), Mokohinau Islands (1 specimen), Little Barrier Island (4 specimens), Mount Moehau (1 or 2 specimens), and Cuvier Island (many specimens), as well as many specimens from Great Barrier Island and Waharau Regional Park (see below)
- specimens of this complex have been turning up regularly from Waharau Regional Park, South Auckland, in March, and despite having the aedeagus seemingly more similar to S. watti, I tentatively identify them as S. glabratus (see figs. 1 and 2), due to their proximity to the type locality for S. glabratus
- the whole complex (and indeed the entire genus) is urgently in need of taxonomic revision
- S. watti may not be distinct from S. glabratus
- although most specimens of this complex are more or less uniformly coloured, some are mottled like many other species of the genus
- most of the specimens that I have examined from Great Barrier Island are mottled, and yet the holotype of S. watti is uniformly coloured
- the Auckland Museum collection has 24 mottled specimens from Great Barrier Island, all collected Oct-Dec (and possibly Sep), and 4 uniformly coloured specimens, collected Feb-Apr
- the holotype of S. watti is uniformly coloured, but collected 20 Nov 1954
Stephen Thorpe 02:07, 14 March 2011 (CET)
