1. To revise the USA species, comparing the results with Townes' (1949) revision. That is mostly done, and I shall be starting to write the manuscript soon. I found two undescribed species which are provisorily named Megischus ater and M. annectens. I got several specimens of each, and you can look at their geographical distribution by accessing our database [link].
2. To database all available specimens of stephanid collected in the USA. In fact, all specimens you nice folks sent me are already in the database (go there and check!), but I do know that there are several others out there, because I still did not get all specimens mentioned by Townes in his 1949 revision.
The current list of species for the continental USA is as follows.
Schlettererius cinctipes (Cresson, 1889)
M. californicus Townes, 1949
M. texanus Cresson, 1872
M. bicolor (Westwood, 1841)
M. arizonicus Townes, 1949
M. brunneus Cresson, 1865
M. ater Aguiar, mss.
M. annectens Aguiar, mss.
Townes recognized two subspecies for M. bicolor (Westw.), one with head and pronotum ferrugineous (M. b. bicolor) and another uniformely brown or blackish (M. b. sickmanni). These subspecies are not currently accepted as valid. In fact, a distinction based on color only is not very convincing. However, the interesting thing here is that these two color morphs have a nearly non-interposing geographical distribution*, thus appearing to be two distinctly isolated populations. We are about to test more thoroughly how strict this isolation is, by using BIOCLIM [link]. This will help us to decide whether to consider them isolated species or not.
There is one more problem surrounding this species: one South American species is very similar to M. bicolor and, if they are proved to be conspecific, M. bicolor could be considered a junior synonym, thus an invalid name. The correct name for the SA species, however, will depend on the evaluation of the holotypes of Stephanus furcatus LePeletier & Serville, 1825, and Stephanus brasiliensis Westwood, 1832, which I could not find yet.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
If you still have any stephanid in your drawer, or in alcohol, please let me borrow it. All
specimens are important, and will contribute significantly to this work.
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This page last updated: March 09, 1998.