{{Short description|Species of beetle}} {{Speciesbox | image = | image_caption = | genus = Collops | species = tricolor | authority = (Say, 1823) | synonyms = ''Collops sublimbatus'' | synonyms_ref = (Schaeffer/Fall, 1912) | display_parents = 4 }}
'''''Collops tricolor''''', also known as the '''black-headed melyrid''' or the '''tri-colored soft-winged flower beetle''', is a species of soft-winged flower beetle in the family Melyridae. It is found in North America.<ref name=":2">Say, Thomas (October 22, 1823). "Descriptions of Coleoptaerous Insects Collected in the late Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, performed by Order of Mr. Calhoun, Secretary of War, under Command of Major Long". ''Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia''. '''3''': 184–185 – via Google Books.</ref>
== Description == Adults measure 3.5-4mm in length. Head, undersides, and legs are black.<ref name=":1" /> Labrum and polished thorax are rufous while the antennae are pale rufous becoming dusky at the tips.<ref name=":1" /> Dark bluish-green to violet elytra, with the margins sometimes rufous in the middle and the suture less often partly rufous.<ref name=":1" />
=== Male === Elytra are shiny. The basal joints of the antennae are triangular and broad, being virtually equal in width and length.<ref name=":1" />
=== Female === Elytra are duller. Further west, the female type is virtually indistinguishable from other species (e.g., ''C. vicarius'') without an associating male.<ref name=":1" />
=== Plausible polymorphism === thumb|''Collops sublimbatus'' on outcrop - female (left) and males (right) ''Collops sublimbatus'' was described as its own species by Schaeffer in 1912 from specimens collected near the top of Black Rock Mountain in Rabun County, Georgia.<ref name=":0">Miscellaneous Notes. (1916). ''Journal of the New York Entomological Society'', ''24''(2), 153–154. <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/25003710</nowiki></ref> It is virtually the same as ''C. tricolor'', except that the elytral margins and suture are always entirely rufous.<ref name=":1">Fall, H. C. (1912). "A Review of the North American Species of Collops (Col.)". ''Journal of the New York Entomological Society''. '''20'''. Pasadena, CA: New York Entomological Society: 249 - 274 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.</ref> Fall indicates that this "species" is a probable variety or color phase of ''C. tricolor,'' by the fact that some ''C. tricolor'' specimens have varying amounts of rufous on the margins and suture and thus "bridge the gap''"'' between the two types. <ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Accordingly, a 1987 study done between ''C. sublimbatus'' and ''C. georgianus'' in the southeast referred to ''sublimbatus'' as a type of the species ''C. tricolor''.<ref name=":4" /> ''Nomina Insecta Nearctica'' (1996) lists ''C.'' ''sublimbatus'' as a synonym of ''C. tricolor.''<ref>Poole, R. W., and P. Gentili (eds.). 1996. Nomina Insecta Nearctica: a checklist of the insects of North America. Volume 1 (Coleoptera, Strepsiptera). Entomological Information Services, Rockville, MD. </ref>
== Similar species == ''C. vicarius'' is indistingishable from ''C. tricolor'', except that the basal triangular joint of the male's antennae is not as broad, but is 1/2 longer than wide.<ref name=":1" /> However, Henry Fall, who described the species in 1912 from a specimen from Indiana, noted that more study is needed to distinguish these species.<ref name=":1" />
''C. nigriceps'', found along the coastlines of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast, from Massachusetts to Alabama, is similar to ''C. tricolor'', but is distinguished by a large dark spot on the rufous thorax, a longer thorax proportionally, and the thighs sometimes being rufous.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> However, the spot is often absent in the ''floridanus'' variety, and thus, it is more reliably separated by the male's third antennal joint.<ref name=":1" />
''C. parvus'' is superficially similar in color but smaller (3mm) and narrower towards the front since the thorax is half as wide as the elytra.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> The antennae and legs are also different; it has black thighs and rufous tibiae and tarsi.<ref name=":1" /> Moreover, it inhabits parts of the Southwestern United States.<ref name=":1" />
''C. georgianus'' can be confused with ''C. sublimbatus'' type, but the head and prothorax of the latter are shiny and hardly punctuate, and the head, legs, and undersides are black.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Schaeffer |first=Charles |date=June 1912 |title=New Species of the Coleopterous Genus Collops |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/31539 |journal=The Canadian Entomologist |volume=44 |issue=6 |pages=187 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}</ref> The antennae between these species are almost indistinguishably the same.<ref name=":1" />
== Distribution == Locally common from Quebec to Virginia becoming scarcer to the west of this region.<ref name=":1" /> The range of the ''C. sublimbatus'' type includes Alabama, North and South Carolina, and the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia, with ''C. georgianus'' occupying outcrops in the north central part of Georgia.<ref name=":4">King, Patricia Smith (1987). "Macro- and Microgeographic Structure of a Spatially Subdivided Beetle Species in Nature". ''Evolution''. '''41''' (2): 401–416. doi:10.2307/2409147. JSTOR 2409147. PMID 28568758.</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q122463120}}
Category:Melyridae Category:Beetles described in 1823 Category:Beetles described in 1912
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