Acrotona avia
Creators: name: Majka, Christopher
name: Klimaszewski, Jan
name: Lauff, Randolph
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2008
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Acrotona
Acrotona avia

description: <i>Acrotona avia</i> (Casey, 1910) <b>NOVA SCOTIA: Antigonish Co.:</b> Pomquet Beach, IV.1996, R.F. Lauff, sand dunes, leaf litter, (1 female; 1 male, NSMC). <i>Acrotona avia</i> (Fig. 1) is newly recorded in Canada (Fig. 12). <i>Acrotona avia</i> was described by Casey (1910) on the basis of specimens collected in Rhode Island. The bionomics of the species are unknown, however, it appears that <i>A. avia</i> could be associated with sandy, seacoast environments. Pomquet Beach (45°39’27”N, 61°49’18”W) is a coastal barrier beach that lies between Pomquet Harbour and St. Georges Bay on the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Nova Scotia. The specimens from that locale were collected in a coastal sand dune environment adjacent to a “slack” (a temporary water body lying between two dune crests). Saunderstown (Rhode Island) is located near the mouth of Narragansett Bay where it opens up onto Long Island Sound. The Casey family farm (41°30’44”N, 71°25’23”W), where T.L. Casey lived and carried out collecting (Sikes 2004), is located 0.35 km from the seacoast, immediately adjacent to a barrier beach and coastal lagoon environment very similar to the Pomquet Beach site in Nova Scotia. Although there is no specific information that Casey collected the type specimens from precisely this site, it appears probable that <i>A. avia</i> is associated with such coastal environments. <i>Cercyon litoralis</i> (Gyllenhal, 1808) [Hydrophilidae] and <i>Stenus erythropus</i> Melsheimer, 1844 [Staphylinidae] were collected together with <i>A. avia</i> at Pomquet Beach. Until this present report from Nova Scotia the species has not otherwise been reported from outside Rhode Island. It is likely that it is not as restricted in distribution as these limited records would appear to indicate, but rather as Sikes (2004: 10) pointed out, “…even in well-studied, temperate regions, a great deal of basic taxonomic work remains to be done”. Gusarov (2001 -2003) listed this name as a junior synonym of <i>Acrotona subpygmaea</i> Bernhauer, 1909. However, we have specimens at hand from New Brunswick (see Klimaszewski et al. 2005: 14, 15, 34) examined by him and identified as <i>A. subpygmaea</i> Bernhauer, which clearly belong to a different species. For this reason we provisionally retain <i>A. avia</i> as a distinct species until proper revisionary studies are finalized. We confirm however, that <i>A. puritana</i> (Casey, 1910) [originally <i>Colpodota</i>] is a junior synonym of <i>A. avia</i> (Casey). We were able to examine four syntypes of <i>A. avia</i> from Rhode Island, Boston Neck, housed in the Casey collection in Washington (USNM). We designate here the female bearing the following labels as the lectotype: “R.I., a <i>via</i> -3, paralectotype USNM, 38993, Casey bequest 1925”, and Gusarov’s unpublished paralectotype label: “ paralectotypus, <i>Colpodota avia</i> Casey, female, V.I. Gusarov des. 2000” (USNM) [genital structures well preserved]. The remaining three specimens then become paralectotypes: R.I., Casey bequest 1925, <i>avia</i> -2, paratype USNM 38993, paralectotypus, <i>Colpodota avia</i> Casey, male, V.I. Gusarov des. 2000 (USNM) male [aedeagus missing in the attached vial]; R.I. same labels as the lectotype except, <i>avia</i> -1, Type USNM 387993, Gusarov’s unpublished lectotype designation label 2000 (USNM) 1 female; and R.I., <i>avia</i> -4 (USNM) 1 female. We have designated a female specimen as a lectotype because the female of this species may be easily distinguished by having the apical margin of sternite eight deeply emarginate (Fig. 11) and by the shape of the spermatheca (Fig. 9), and because the male genital structures were missing in the only male specimen in the type series. To avoid potential confusion in identification of this species in the future we provide for the first time the images of the body and the genital structures (Figs. 1, 5-11). The body and the genital structures of <i>A. subpygmaea</i> (Bernhauer) are published in Figs. 25, 116-119 in Klimaszewski et al. (2005), based on V.I. Gusarov’s identification.
description: Published as part of <i>Majka, Christopher, Klimaszewski, Jan &amp; Lauff, Randolph, 2008, The coastal rove beetles (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) of Atlantic Canada: a survey and new records, pp. 115-150 in ZooKeys 2 (2)</i> on page 123, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/576408
description: {"references": ["Casey TL (1910) New species of the Staphylinid tribe Myrmedoniini: Memoirs on the Coleoptera 1. New Era Printing, Lancaster, 183 pp.", "Sikes DS (2004) The beetle fauna of Rhode Island: an annotated checklist. Kingston, Rhode Island: Rhode Island Natural History Survey, volume 3, 296 pp. http: // collections 2. eeb. uconn. edu / collections / insects / ribf / ribfcontents. html [accessed 30 July 2008]", "Gusarov VI (2001 - 2003) A catalogue of the athetine species of America north of Mexico (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae: Athetini). http: // nhm. ku. edu / ksem / peet / catalogs / cataweb. htm [accessed 30 July 2008]", "Klimaszewski J, Sweeney J, Price J, Pelletier G (2005) Rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in red spruce stands, eastern Canada: diversity, abundance, and descriptions of new species. The Canadian Entomologist 137: 1 - 48."]}