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Crpyptophagus scanicus


This 2.1mm beetle was quite tricky to ID. Although I caught it in 2022 I discovered the specimen hiding among my Latridiidae specimens after I'd identified the Cryptophagus denticulatus from 2023. Compared to that I felt the side tooth on the pronotum wasn't so far forward, judging it to be only slightly in front of the middle. That being so it keyed to scanicus and as I think that's the most frequent Cryptophagus in Norfolk - however it was a female and Duff states that this species is only safely separated from badius, reflexus and uncinatus on male genitalic characters. The spermatheca was photographed just in case it proves useful at some point, but I'm not aware of differences between the species. In view of Duff's comments I'm not sure if this can be recorded as scanicus or not?

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apparent female Crpyptophagus scanicus showing pronotum (2 views), antenna, elytral hairs and spermatheca, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 11th August 2022