Zopherus tristis

Size: ~ 13-24 mm

Seasonality: Active between March and November

Distribution; Southern California and Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico.

Information:

Found under wood and rocks in dry areas. Often seen in sandy deserts and dunes. Seen feeding on plant matter such as that of Larrea tridentata. 

Description: Body; very rectangular and slightly elongate, mostly black but with a grey underlying color surrounding the elytral tubercles. Appendages black with orange setae on the underside of the coxa, femora, tibiae and tarsi. Tarsal formula: 5-5-4. Antennae black; clavate; 11-segmented with a 1-segment club. Pronotum entirely glossy black with many medium, evenly spaced punctures; semi-cordate, square. Elytra scabrous, with many large, flattened tubercles arranged in rows. Humeral angles obtuse, elytral shoulder width same as that of pronotal base. Ventral surface with many deep and obvious punctures, deepest and largest at the prosternum and most small and shallow at the abdominal ventrite 5. Prosternal process between the coxa largely smooth. Dorsal side of head with miniscule punctures while the ventral side is smooth.