Figure 2.2.12 Tympanophorus puncticollis (Erichson), forebody. 2.2.14 T. puncticollis, head with labial palpi.
10.3.1 T. puncticollis, dorsal habitus. 10.3.2. T. puncticollis, from rotting sawdust in an abandoned sawmill.

Tympanophorus puncticollis can be distinguished from other Staphylininae by the combination of a neck with coarse lateral punctures (Fig. 2.2.12), lack of plates anterior to the prosternum, elytra that do not overlap (Fig. 10.3.1), small head (Fig 2.2.12), and hoof-like apical labial palpomere (Fig. 2.2.14). The distinctive labial palpi will quickly distinguish this species from all other Staphylininae.

This species is transcontinental in Canada in the boreal ecozone; it inhabits more southern forests in eastern North America, occurring west to Minnesota and as south as Alabama. Its range in ECAS is given by Map 2. Tympanophorus puncticollis is newly recorded from Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York:

UNITED STATES: IN: Tippcanoe Co., 40.42 -86.89, 25-VII-1971, N.M. Downie, 2 (FMNH); 31-VII-1971, N.M. Downie, 1 (FMNH). PA: Allegheny Co., Pittsburgh, 40.43 -80.00, VII, 1 (CMNH). Monroe Co., Delaware Water Gap, 40.9667 -75.1167, A. T. Slosson, 1 (AMNH). NY: Madison Co., Darts Corners, 42.8 -75.5, VIII, K.W. Cooper, 1 (AMNH). Queens Co., Far Rockaway, 40.60 -73.75, 22-VI-1904, L.B. Woodruff, 1 (AMNH).

Eastern Canada: ON, QC, NB, NS, NL
Adjacent U.S.: MI, IN, PA, ME, NY, NH

Tympanophorus puncticollis has been collected in ECAS from May to September with an increase in abundance occurring in June-July.

This species is rarely collected and consequently very little has been published about its natural history. The scant habitat data suggest that it occurs in moist (with ferns) or boggy areas within forested habitat but it has also been collected at the mouth of a fox burrow, along a cobblestone shoreline of a lake, in a 'lumber yard', and in rotting sawdust in an abandoned sawmill (Fig. 10.3.2). Specimens have been caught by pitfall, window pane, and raised malaise (six feet high) traps, suggesting that it is highly mobile.  One individual was extracted from moss on a dead balsam fir using a Berlese funnel (Paquin and Duperre 2001) and T. puncticollis was newly reported from Maine by Majka et al. (2011) from a black spruce plantation. Paquin and Duperre (2001) suggested a possible association with the forest canopy as several individuals were captured in their canopy funnel traps.