Elodes sp.

The beetle below was identified as Elodes sp. using Mike Hackston's key. It was early in my beetle identification career, but from the photos I think this was probably accurate, although photos of Elodes online appear to show slightly more elongated insects. The pronotum shape appears to fit Elodes and the third antennal segment seems to be very short.

Males are needed for certain identification to species level. At the time I sexed it as probably a female, so I suspect I did a bad job of the dissection and wasn't completely sure if I had been unable to find the relevant male parts because it was female or if it was because I'd messed it up. In any case I was (and remain) unable to progress the ID any further.

Elodes sp., North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 19th July 2017

I found this one on a Rowan leaf in wet woodland. Beetle genitalia are so varied and although many males have distinctive median lobes which, upon dissection, make them instantly recognisable as males, some have altogether different-looking genitalia. Some females have spermatheca that immediately signal to me that I'm dealing with a female but others lack distinctive spermetheca. This one lacked any structures that immediately signalled to me which sex it was, though my immediate impression was that it was probably a female. Unsure of this, I examined it carefully to see if I could make out any structures that resmembled any of the male Elodes tergite 8 or tergminal apices as shown in Duff. There was one appendage that looked remarkably similar to the diagram in Duff for tricuspis tergminal apex, so could it be a male after all? Eventually, after clearing it thoroughly and looking at each part and every possible focus, I could not find anything at all that resembled any of Duff's tergite 8s, especially not tricuspis, and nothing resembling any of the tergminal apices for any of the other species. Checking the diagrams in Hackston and coleonet.de I eventually satisfied myself that the thing that looked like Duff's diagram of tricuspis tegminal apex could not in fact be this, and that being so it was, presumably, a female after all. And in that case, there appears to be no way of progressing its ID beyond Elodes sp.

Elodes sp. showing pronotum, apex of abomen before and after clearing and internal abdominal structures (2 views), Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 8th May 2024