Badister grandiceps
Badister grandiceps
Size: 4.6-5.6mm
Seasonality: breed during the spring, then active in the West until November
Distribution; BC-NS, OR-UT-IL-DC
Information: prefer to reside in wet habitats, especially around marshes, swamps, lakes, creek and river beds and the like. May be found in/on/under decaying materials in said locations, on muddy substrates.
Description: body: elongate-oblong, slender. Head black, semi-glossy; smooth, with large microsculpture dorsally, visible with a good hand lens or a microscope. Face short, mandibles do not overlap/cross when relaxed, tips blunt, jaws broad. Mandibles dark reddish-amber in colour, with black tips. Palps dark brown with pale, nearly white tips. Antennae half dark, half pale brown; basal margin of the scapus, pedicel, and first following antennomere should be pale; antennal pubescence begins on the first antennomere following the pedicel. Eyes fairly large, bulging laterally; two long setae should be found over each eye. Pronotum semi-quadrate, lateral margins rounded; front angles rounded-acute, front margin curved inward; hind angles very broadly obtuse, lateral bead at hind angles' apices broad; basal margin round. Lateral beading begins at the front angles, ending abruptly just before the lower median bulge along the pronotual base. Pronotal disk glossy, pale orange, disk faces near hind angles impressed, rough. Median line shallow, with few minor wrinkles stretching out from it. Basal margin of pronotum does not overlap the elytral base. Pronotum semi-glossy brown, with pale margins. 7-8 shallow striae per elytron, intervals flat; two fovea, each with one fine, pale seta may be found on the lower half of each elytron, on the 2nd stria. The elytra should be the dark dark, semi-glossy brown as the pronotal disk, with weak iridescence. Humeral shoulders rounded, laterobasal ridges entire, one parascutellar pore on each elytron; lateral margins rounded-elongate; apices strongly truncate-squared. Ventral colouration: ventral faces dark, glossy brown, may have a yellow-green, greasy appearance; legs pale.
All species in the genus Badister are sexually dimorphic, males have broadened, padded protarsi, while the females' protarsi are unaltered.