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Ocalea picata


This was in a pitfall trap (in propylene glycol, so no live photos). As is so often the case with this subfamily I struggled to key it to Aleocharinae and wasted a fair bit of time attempting to get somewhere in one or two other subfamilies (it actually seemed to key remarkably well to something entirely different that looks superficially similar but having some niggling doubts I checked a high resolution photo of that species and there were a number of small but significant differences). Eventually I realised and using Hackston's Aleocharinae keys it seems to key to Ocalea picata. This seems right, but my only hesitation is the spermatheca. The German website Käfer Europas shows the spermatheca to be less simple with a coiled section at the tip. I don't think I've just broken this off as the unsclerotised duct is still present beyond this. But the German site doesn't show any other species of Ocalea with a similar spermatheca, and I can't find any way of keying it to anything else satisfactorily. I tried re-keying it taking alternative routes at any couplet that wasn't totally clear, but usually ended up with genera that had quite different habitus. The more similar-looking genera appear to lack the bristles on the side of the pronotum and elytral shoulder so unless I'm missing something I think it must be Ocalea. Please let me know if you think I've overlooked something and it's not Ocalea...

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Ocalea picata showing foreparts, pronotum, bristles on side of pronotum and elytral shoulder, elytra (two views), palps, hind tarsus and spermatheca, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 29th to 31st March 2024