Aphotaenius carolinus (Van Dyke 1928)

Aphotaenius carolinus (Van Dyke)

Ataenius carolinus Van Dyke, 1928:157.

Aphodius carolinus.—Hinton, 1937b:196.

Aphotaenius carolinus.—Cartwright, 1952:182; 1958:134; 1963: 49.

DESCRIPTION.—Length 2.5 to 3.1 mm; width 0.95 to 1.3 mm. Piceous black, shining, head anteriorly and legs reddish, antennae and palpi testaceous. Head three-fourths as wide as pronotum, strongly convex, basally with a band of coarse punctures, front finely punctate, anterior smooth, impunctate; clypeus with finely reflexed margin, bidentate, teeth strongly developed, acutely pointed and widely separated, slightly emarginate between teeth, margin flattened and dorsally angulately widened, this appearing as an angulate carina from directly above, the extreme ventral margin, invisible from above, with a small median angulation directed in the opposite direction. Pronotum convex, margined basally and laterally, surface with mixed coarse and very fine punctures, coarse punctures uniformly distributed, separated by less than one diameter to two diameters. Elytra convex, coarsely striate, striae strongly crenate punctate, intervals moderately convex, minutely punctate. Covered basal portion of pygidium deeply grooved under tips of elytra, exposed portion with depressed eroded area divided by a longitudinal carina. Posterior prosternal spine strongly developed, laterally compressed. Mesosternum closely, moderately punctate. Metasternum quite closely coarsely punctate, median longitudinal line deep. Second abdominal sternum closely, shallowly setigerously punctate along anterior margin, carinate between the coxae; remaining sterna smooth, coarsely, deeply fluted in front. Posterior femoral line obsolete, only faintly indicated, middle femoral line and anterior ventral line of profemur wide, deep, and noticeably alutaceous. Anterior tibiae tridentate externally. Middle and posterior tibiae with oblique carinae as in Aphodius, without fringe of spicules apically but with two well-separated triangular teeth, each tooth with a fine hairlike seta basally on each side, the outer apical angles prolonged, spinelike as in Ataenius, long spur, first tarsal segment, and three following segments combined, equal in length. Terminal tarsal segment about as long as two preceding segments combined, claws minute.

HOLOTYPE.—California Academy of Sciences, No. 2549.

TYPE-LOCALITY.—Black Mountains, North Carolina.

SPECIMENS EXAMINED.—109.

DATES COLLECTED.—April 29–September 10.

DISTRIBUTION (Figure 2).—Florida: Caverns State Park (Jackson County), Key West. Georgia: Pine Mtn. (Rabun County). Indiana: Crawford County. Maryland: Marlboro. Ohio: Cincinnati. North Carolina: Black Mts., Pisgah Forest. South Carolina: Eastatoe River (Pickens County), I’On Swamp (7 mi N of Awendaw, 15 mi NE of Charleston), Sassafras Mtn. Virginia: A. P. Hill Military Reservation (Caroline County), Duthet State Park (Bath County), Jefferson National Forest (Botetourt County), 5 mi S of Paris.

Aphotaenius carolinus is a species of aphodiine dung beetle in the family Scarabaeidae. It is found in North America.