ISSN 1911-2173





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Habrocerinae Mulsant and Rey 1877:

Habrocerus
Erichson 1839
  Fig. 1.21.2. Habrocerus capillaricornis Gravenhorst, right antenna. 1.21.3. H. capillaricornis, dorsal habitus. 9.3.1. H. magnus LeConte, dorsal habitus. 9.3.2. H. capillaricornis, from leaf litter.    
 



 
  Species of Habrocerus can be recognized by antennomeres 3-11 that are extremely slender, with long black macrosetae (Fig. 1.21.2), and by their dorsal pronotum with few setae (Fig. 1.21.3). Trichophya Mannerheim (Trichophyinae) has similar antennae; however its dorsal surface is covered with many setae (Fig. 1.22.1). Habrocerus magnus LeConte has broader antennomeres and lacks other important morphological features of the genus (Fig. 9.3.1) (Assing and Wunderle 1995), and probably belongs in a lineage of Tachyporinae (Assing and Wunderle 1995) or Olisthaerinae (Newton et al. 2000).  We treat this species here as Habrocerus pending its formal transfer elsewhere.  
 

In North America, this subfamily occurs in the northeast and southwest. There are currently three species found in ECAS: the relatively common, introduced Habrocerus capillaricornis Gravenhorst, the native H. schwarzi Horn, and the native but unplaced ‘Habrocerus’ magnus (see above). Virtually nothing is known about the rarely collected H. magnus, although it shares features with known subcortical staphylinids (relatively flattened body, small globular coxae).  H. capillaricornis is most often collected from forested areas in litter (Fig. 9.3.2), under bark, in fungi (Assing and Wunderle 1995) and in compost. Habrocerus schwarzi is also collected from forested areas, most often from decaying fungi in the later stages of decomposition but also from moose and grouse dung and leaf litter (Assing and Wunderle 1995). It has also been captured in great numbers in pitfall traps placed in parts of the ‘southern’ boreal forest of Québec undergoing the deciduous stage of succession (Paquin and Duperre 2001). Most records of H. schwarzi are from Canada and this species was found to be dependent on old growth forests (Spence et al. 1997). The diet of habrocerines is unknown.

 
 
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