Dicheirus piceus
Dicheirus piceus
Size: 8-9.2mm
Seasonality: April-September
Distribution; BC-CA, w. MT s. to UT-AZ
Information: generally prefer to reside in rather dry, hot places, during the day they may be found resting or mating beneath anything from railroad ties, to stones, to firewood, to logs, old tyres, trash, etc. Mostly nocturnal, not excessively fast, but if provoked, try to run for any cover which they can fit under of into. Less common overall in mixed forest habitats, but not always absent.
Description: body: elongate-ovate, slender. Dorsal colouration of mature adults should be dark reddish-brown. Ventral faces reddish, nearly black, with varying amounts of pubescence; legs reddish, setaceous. Head squarish; surface of the head, including the clypeus, should be heavily punctate, punctures rather large: setigerous. Labrum rectangular, opaque reddish, anterior margin wavy. Mandibles short, strongly curved, rather broad. Eyes not particularly large, bulging laterally. Antennae dark reddish; antennal pubescence begins on the first antennomere following the pedicel (the third segment). Pronotum convex in most populations north of California, and west of Montana, and much less so outside of that region. Anterior margin transverse; anterior angles obtuse; lateral margins weakly rounded; hind angles obtuse, rounded; basal margin transverse, or very faintly sinuous. Lateral margins beaded, basal margin very faintly beaded, nearly vanished. Pronotal disk more or less smooth, but very heavily punctate(setigerous), with the puncture density varying between regions. Median line faint or vanished. Pronotal base slightly narrower than the humeral shoulder width. 8-9 thin, well-defined striae per elytron, intervals weakly elevated, with rows of small setigerous pits along either side of each stria (two rows of setigerous pits per elytral interval). Humeral shoulders squarish, rounded; lateral margins parallel, or nearly so; apices rounded.