A NEW SPECIES OF OPITHES FROM MEXICO 
WITH A KEY TO THE SPECIES 
(COLEOPTERA: STAPHYLINIDAE ) * 
By Ian Moore 
Staff Research Associate 
Division of Biological Control 
University of California, Riverside 
The generic name Ophites was validated by Erichson ( 1839, P* 29) 
by inclusion in a key to the genera of the tribe Paederini. In the 
second half of the same work (1840, p. 627) Erichson described in 
detail the genus and three included species from Colombia. Sharp 
(1876) added a new species from Brazil and Lynch-Arribalzaga 
(1884) added another from Argentina. In 1901 Fauvel described a 
sixth species from Colombia. In 1952 Blackwelder called attention 
to the fact the name Ophites was preoccupied by Wagler, 1830, and 
proposed the substitute name Opithes. 
In 1904 Fauvel described from Brazil two genera, Mimophites 
and Bolbophites , which closely resemble Opithes. Members of each 
of these genera have the slender neck and narrow pronotum of 
Opithes. Blackwelder in 1944 placed the former next to Ophites 
( — Opithes) and the latter far removed in the subtribe Echiasteres. 
Seevers (1965) reviewed Mimophites and Bolbophites. He stated 
“Mimophites appears to belong to Casey’s (1905) subtribe Stilici, a 
group included in Blackwelder’s (1944) Lathrobii.” In Opithes 
the first antennal segment is as long as the next six combined, more 
than one-third of the length of the entire antenna; the gular sutures 
are narrowly but distinctly separate; the neck is about one-fourth 
the length of the head and the last segment the maxillary palpus is 
not subulate but is almost as wide at base as the apex of the third 
segment and is conical. Mimophites differs from Opithes in that the 
first antennal segment is short, no longer than the next two com- 
bined, and the antennae are not anteriorly flexile; the neck is short; 
the gular sutures are united and the last segment of the maxillary 
palpus is subulate and quite slender. Bolbophites differs from 
Opithes in that the first antennal segment is no longer than the next 
three together; the gular sutures are united and the last segment of 
the maxillary palpus is subulate. 
*Manuscript received by the editor June 10, 1974. 
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