Oxyporus rufipennis LeConte

Oxyporus rufipennis LeConte (Staphylinidae)

Figure 2

These are the third reported anomalies in the genus Oxyporus Fabricius, the only genus of the Oxyporinae (Staphylinidae). Larvae and adults of the genus Oxyporus which has a world wide distribution are obligate inhabitants of fresh mushrooms and feed on the flesh and gill tissues.

This specimen was collected on Pleurotus ostriatus Fries (family Tricholomataceae) in Connecticut, Litchfield Co., People’s Forest on Beaver Pond Road on VI-6-1966. A meiomely according to Balazuc (1948) involves the loss (ectromely) or reduction (atrophy) of appendages or part of appendages. In this specimen the right mandible (Fig. 2C) and the right antenna (Fig. 2B, 2C) are reduced in relation to the left normal mandible and normal antenna. The atrophy of the right antenna has three fewer segments compared to the normal antenna (Fig. 2A, 2C). These atrophies are very common and the cause is mechanical (Balazuc 1948). The reduction of the antennomeres is more common on the last terminal half of the antenna (antennomeres 6 to 10). In this case antennomeres 4-6 are missing.