ZOOTAXA

"in east Siberia there is a species very close to investigator but it can be distinguished frominvestigator and all other species in that the abdominal setae are yellow.."[translated fromGerman]; other authors who have produced keys to Nicrophorus species have relied onthis abdominal setal color trait (e.g. Portevin 1926, Hlisnikovsky 1932, Lafer 1989,Nikolajev & Kozminykh 2002), or traits that simply do not agree with the type specimen;Hatch (1927), who admitted not having examined specimens of N. praedator, and laterCho & Lee (1992), who presumably based their key on that of Hatch, used 'metapimeronpubescent' as a key distinguishing trait of N. praedator – a trait that does not agree with thetype specimen which has, like N. investigator, glabrous metapimera. Shchegoleva-Barovskaya (1933a) used both abdominal setal color and presence (N. praedator) orabsence (N. investigator) of setae on the anterior corners of the pronotum. However, bothof these 'species' display short setae on the anterior corners of the pronotum, leaving onlyabdominal setal color as a possible diagnostic trait. Cho et al. (1987) compared two speciesof Nicrophorus, N. latifasciatus and N. praedator, with SEM to find differentiatingcharacters. They concluded these names belonged to different species. However, theiridentifications are suspect considering they had not examined the types of either name andno reliable keys to these species exist. In addition, their conclusions were based on thecomparison of a female 'N. latifasciatus' with a male 'N. praedator'. They remarked on thedifferences in shape of the postocular region which is well known to differ between thesexes of Nicrophorus species. It is thus likely that their two “species” were, in fact, conspecificsof opposite sex. In the Nicrophorus key by Nikolajev & Kozminykh (2002) thechoice of “abdominal segments with pale setation” sends one to N. praedator, N. investigatorfuneror, and N. chryseus, supporting the statement that the color of the abdominalpubescence cannot be used to differentiate “N. praedator” from N. investigator.DSS has studied long series from the region of N. praedator (Japan, Korea, northeastChina, eastern Russia [Ussuri]) and has been unsuccessful in sorting specimens accordingto prior author's concepts of N. praedator/ N. investigator. The abdominal setal color traitis too variable and does not work, with undeniable N. investigator (e.g. from Finland;SMFD) showing gradations of yellow, yellow-brown, to all brown, or black. These setaeare also often abraded (and thus absent entirely) or dirty (and thus appear darker) whichmakes confident categorizations difficult. With very few exceptions, genitalia of eithersex is not useful to differentiate closely related Nicrophorus species, as is true in this case.RM treats N. praedator as a valid species, differentiating it from N. investigator not byabdominal setal color, but by the shape of the pronotum. RM concluded that in the largemales of both species the pronotum is less transverse in N. praedator than N. investigator.This trait may prove useful in a morphometric analysis to sort specimens, but presumablyonly large males of each 'species' will separate.There is an elytral variant of N. investigator that is more common in series of specimenscollected from the 'N. praedator' regions, and these are often identified as N. praedatorin collections. This variant has the black region of the elytral sutural apex varyingZOOTAXA65CATALOG OF NICROPHORINAE© 2002 Magnolia Press 115