This insect collected from storage products in southern Iraq. Any help for identification will be appreciated. Thanks
Ali
Unfortunately, an indication of the size of this beetle was not given: it would be helpful. A photo taken from the back (dorsally) would also be useful, mainly to see the shape of the head and pronotum. I suggest the familiy Carabidae and - as hypothesis - the subfamily Lebiinae (see for example genera MIcrolestes, Dromius, Cymindis ...). Regards,
Rinaldo Nicoli
Thanks so much Rinaldo and Alfonso , I will try to add more details about it !
I saw the second and the third photo, added at a later time. The third photo seems to correspond to the same beetle specimen of the first photo, and allows me to confirm my impression that it is a carabid, although it would be useful to know the size (length) of the insect and to see a photo taken dorsally, not only on the side and ventrally.
I would say that the second photo with certainty corresponds, however, to a different specimen, and suggests the family Anthicidae rather than the family Carabidae. In order to exclude carabids you should examine the tarsal formula of the specimen: carabids (as well as many other beetle families) have tarsal formula 5,5,5 (i.e. have 5 tarsomeres in the tarsus of each of the three pairs of legs), anthicids (as well as other families of beetles, the 'so called' Heteromera, to which the family Oedemeridae also belongs) have tarsal formula 5,5,4 (i.e. they only have 4 tarsomeres in the tarsus of metathoracic legs). Anthicidae are a few millimeters long beetles, like certain very small carabids; Oedemeridae are long at least a few millimeters more than Anthicidae, and they usually have antennae, in proportion, a bit longer and thinner.
Regards,
Rinaldo Nicoli
I do not know the second one but the first and the third ones look very much like Cryptolestes ferrugineus. Better photos are highly needed though.
At least two features, which are visible in the third photo (which now has become the second, because the second photo was removed) allow to exclude the genus Cryptolestes (Cucujidae): the prothorax much narrower than the base of the elytra (in Cryptolestes it has approximately the same width as the elytral base) and the size of the trochanter of metathoracic legs: in Cryptolestes this trochanter is smaller, instead in carabids is generally quite large. It would also be helpful to know the length of the beetle photographed: Cryptolestes generally do not exceed 2 mm in length. Regards,
Rinaldo Nicoli
Thanks so much Rinaldo for identification details , I have checked the genus you suggested , but it hard to match my sample with its species. I will report the size of specimens when I got it may can help to get the right spices.
Hi, this is for sure a male Microlestes. Although these photos are not very clear, I can spot that in the middle of the last sternite there is concavity with pilosity. So the species has to be Microlestes corticalis, known also from Iraq.
http://www.entomologiitaliani.net/public/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=62639&hilit=microlestes
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