Review of Canadian species of the genus Mocyta Mulsant & Rey (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae), with the description of a new species and a new synonymy

Abstract

Six species of the genus Mocyta Mulsant & Rey are reported from Canada: Mocyta amblystegii (Brundin), M. breviuscula (Mäklin), M. discreta (Casey), M. fungi (Gravenhorst), M. luteola (Erichson), and M. sphagnorum Klimaszewski & Webster, sp. n. New provincial and state records include: M. breviuscula – Saskatchewan and Oregon; M. discreta – Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan; M. luteola – New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Massachusetts and Minnesota; and M. fungi – Saskatchewan. Mocyta sphagnorum is described from eastern Canada from specimens captured in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. Mocyta negligens Mulsant and Rey, a native European species suspected of occurring in Canada, is excluded from the Nearctic fauna based on comparison of European types with similarly coloured Canadian specimens, which are now identified as M. luteola. The European species, Mocyta gilvicollis (Scheerpeltz), is synonymized with another European nominal species, M. negligens, based on examination of type material of the two species. Lectotypes are designated for Eurypronota discreta Casey, Atheta gilvicollis Scheerpeltz, Homalota luteola Erichson, Colpodota negligens Mulsant and Rey, Acrotona prudens Casey and Dolosota redundans Casey. The latter species is here synonymized with M. luteola. A review of the six Nearctic species is provided, including keys to species and closely related genera, colour habitus images, images of genitalia, biological information and maps of their distributions in Canada.