Silphinae
Creators: name: Mullins, Patricia L.
name: Riley, Edward G.
name: Oswald, John D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Silphidae

description: Subfamily Silphinae
Necrodes surinamensis (Fabricius, 1775) Figs. 5, 19, 32, 45
Silpha surinamensis Fabricius, 1775: 72.
Diagnosis. Body length 20–25 mm, broadly subparallel, dark brownish to black, elytra with small subapical reddish maculae. Head with large eyes, without short row of long erect hairs behind each eye. Pronotum orbicular, widest towards middle; disc without pubescence. Elytra with apices conjointly subtrunctate to projected medially; disc tricostate, intervals smooth and finely granulose; epipleuron oblique, wider at base than apex, coloration not differing from remainder of body. Hind femur of male swollen, with one or two spines.
Range. Newfoundland south to Florida, west to British Columbia, Oregon and Texas (Anderson & Peck 1985, Peck & Kaulbars 1987); possibly in northern Mexico (Peck & Anderson 1985). The stated type locality, “ America meridionali ”, and the species-group name suggests that this species occurs in South America, but this was discounted by Peck and Anderson (1985) who suggest that it ranges no further south than possibly the extreme northern areas of Mexico along the Texas border.
Texas distribution. See Fig. 45. This species is widespread in the Austroriparian and Texan biotic provinces of eastern Texas, with scattered records from the Tamaulipan, Balconian, Kansan, and Chihuahuan provinces. It occurs in the following Texas vegetational areas: pineywoods, gulf prairies and marshes, post oak savannah, blackland prairies, cross timbers and prairies, south Texas plains, Edwards Plateau, rolling plains, high plains, and trans-Pecos. Confirmed counties (52): Anderson, Angelina, Bastrop, Baylor, Bell, Brazoria, Brazos, Brewster, Cameron, Camp, Chambers, Cherokee, Clay, Comanche, Dallas, Delta, Donley, Erath, Fannin, Fayette, Galveston, Gonzales, Grayson, Gregg, Hardin, Hemphill, Hill, Hunt, Jasper, Jefferson, Kaufman, Kerr, Lamar, Leon, Lubbock, McLennan, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Palo Pinto, Red River, Robertson, San Jacinto, Smith, Sutton, Swisher, Tarrant, Tyler, Uvalde, Victoria, Walker, Wood. Collections: BRC, EGRC, JAC, LASM, MWSU, SFAC, SHSU, TAMU, TORC, TTU, UTIC, WTAM.
Seasonality in Texas. See Fig. 32. Adults of this species have been collected in Texas in almost every month of the year. The adult seasonality profile of this species (based on 204 occurrence records: Appendix I) is unimodal, with a large peak in spring.
Biological notes. Anderson and Peck (1985) report that adults are nocturnal and found mostly on large carcasses. In Nebraska this species has shown a strong preference for marshy and forested areas (Ratcliffe 1996). According to Lingafelter (1995), this species prefers mostly open and sandy areas in Kansas.
Data from examined labels. Collecting methods: UV and MV light trap, pit fall trap, incandescent light, flightintercept trap. Habitat records: under bark. Carrion records; tiger [dead zoo specimen], bull, shrimp, cat, chicken and cow. Most Texas collections were made at lights, verifying the statement by Anderson and Peck (1985) that adults are nocturnal. Ratcliffe (1972), Anderson (1982), Schubeck (1983), and Watson and Carlton (2005) provide details on the natural history of this species.
description: Published as part of Mullins, Patricia L., Riley, Edward G. & Oswald, John D., 2013, Identification, distribution, and adult phenology of the carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) of Texas, pp. 221-251 in Zootaxa 3666 (2) on pages 224-225, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3666.2.7, http://zenodo.org/record/220054