A REVISION OF THE GENUS COLON HERBST (COLEOPTERA LEIODIDAE COLONINAE)OF NORTH-AMERICA

The traditional subgenera of Colon Herbst containing the North America n fauna are Colon s.str., Myloechus Latreille, and Eurycolon Ganglbaue r. We use these and also describe Tricolon and Striatocolon as new sub genera. Identification of species in the genus Colon is taxonomically difficult because of allometric variation of external characters in ma les, and lack of distinctive characters in females. We present keys, i llustrations, and descriptions to distinguish the known North American species. A total of 37 species names have been previously applied to Colon in North America. We designate lectotypes for Colon thoracicum H orn, C. asperatum Hem, C. oblongum Blatchley, C. dentatum LeConte, C. pusillum LeConte, C. putum Horn, C. hubbardi Hem, C. nevadense Horn, a nd C. liebecki Wickham. We recognize 16 names as synonyms of previousl y named species as follows: C. clavatum Mannerheim = C. bidentatum Sah lberg; C. complicatum Hatch = C. celatum Hem; C. decore Casey = C. tho racicum Horn; C. excisum Hatch = C. hubbardi Horn; C. femorale Hatch = C. lanceolatum Hatch; C. kincaidi Hatch = C. hubbardi Horn; C. manner heimi Szymczakowski = C. oblongum Blatchley; C. pusillum Horn = C. den tatum LeConte; C. putum Horn = C. dentatum LeConte; C. paradoxum Horn = C. bidentatum Sahlberg; C. nevadense Horn = C. celatum Horn; C. prod uctum Hatch = C. hubbardi Horn; C. rufum Hatch = C. dentatum LeConte; C. schuhi Hatch = C. discretum Hatch; C. serripoides Hatch = C. aspera tum Hem; C. pribilof Hatch = C. liebecki Wickham. We describe 22 speci es as new, as follows. In the subgenus Tricolon: C. blatchleyi and C. pacificum. In the subgenus Colon: C. arcum, C. nitidum, C. politum, an d C. vancouverensis. In the subgenus Myloechus: C. boreale, C. califor nicum, C. chihuahua, C. chiricahua, C. grossum, C. hatchi, C. hesperiu m, C. incisum, C. longitorsum, C. megasetosum, C. mesum, C. monstrosum , C. pararectum, C. potosi, C. similare, and C. politum. All these spe cies are restricted to North America except for C. bidentatum and C. p olitum which are northern Holarctic. This yields 42 species recognized for the North American fauna. These beetles occur in forest, open woo dland, and grassland habitats. Their larvae, biology, and food are sti ll unknown.