Ripiphorus vierecki (Fall 1907)

Rhipiphorus vierecki (Fall)
1907. Myodites vierecki Fall, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, xxxi, p. 259. 1920. Myodites vierecki, Pierce, Ent. News, xxxi, p. 279. 1920. Myodites knansi Pierce, Ent. News. XXXI, p. 279.
Female: Head and thorax black or brownish-black. Pronotum black or dark brown, with sides and base light brown or yellowish, or entirely black but extreme margins with a trace of yellow. Elytra yellow with extreme base brownish. Abdomen straw yellow. The following parts in abdomen are dark brown or black; first five tergites, tip of pygidium, first five pleurites, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh sternites, especially at their median area. Legs pale yellow, joints brown. Head finely punctate, sparsely pubescent. Vertex rounded, nor carinate, frons, slightly concave in middle with slight convex areas on sides of this concavity. Antennae 11 -segmented, about as long as head, rami very long, diminishing in length toward apex. First ramus about half the length of the entire antennae, last ramus as long as the three preceding segments together. Pronotum smooth and glabrous on disc, sparsely punctate and pubescent on sides and front, more closely punctate at base. Disc of pronotum with a distinct concavity in middle and two behind it near base. Base broadly rounded, slightly emarginate at tip. Meso-scutellum glabrous in middle and densely pubescent on both sides. Abdomen very sparsely pubescent, punctation almost indistinct. Pygidium longer than
12 Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, vm, Proa, p. xxm. broad, dorsal angles usually depressed, otherwise entirely convex. First segment of hind tarsus slightly shorter than all others combined, straight, and obliquely truncate at apex.
Male: "Length, 9 mm. Similar to the female, with the following exceptions: antennae honey-yellow, bi-flabellate, with the tips of the rami about even. The abdomen is black with the base and apex of the first ventral segment yellow, and the prepygidial area yellow, but with the pgyidium black."
Length, 9 to 11 mm.
Type. — Female; Florence, Arizona. [Fall Collection.]
Distribution. — Fall records the species from Alamogordo, New Mexico, and Florence, Arizona. Pierce records it from St. George, Utah, June 10, 1919, altitude 2800 feet, and Hurricane, June 14 at altitude 3200. (Knaus). The specimens examined by the author were as follows:
Eight paratypes of Vierecki Fall, all females, Alamogordo, New Mexico, May-April, and Florence, Arizona, May, in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and one female paratype of Myodites Knausi Pierce, in the Mason Collection, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Variation. — The descriptions of both Fall and Pierce show that Rh. vierecki Fall, and Rh. knausi Pierce are one species. The paratypes examined also show that both authors described the same species. Rh. vierecki Fall, because of its priority, should be considered the proper name, and Rh. knausi a synonym. Pierce, in his key (1920), distinguishes the two by the characteristics of the males; he knew the male of his species but did not know the male of the species Fall described and his distinction between the two therefore is very obscure. Pierce, in his description, states also that the female antennae are ten segmented with nine rami, in other words, the second segment is in this case with a process. As far as the present writer knows, having studied this genus and allied genera and families, such can not be the case; as a matter of fact, the antennae of the female vierecki has eleven segments, the second being very small, closely united to the first and therefore inconspicuous. In cases where the female of a Rhipiphorus has only ten segments, it is the last one that disappears. Rh. vierecki has longer antennal rami than the other allied species; in addition to this it may be distinguished from the others by the color, shape of pygidium, and hind tarsi.

Ripiphorus vierecki is a species of wedge-shaped beetle in the family Ripiphoridae. It is found in North America.