Anillinus depressus

Adults of Anillinus depressus are distinguished easily from those of other Texan species of the genus by the following combination of external characters: small size, markedly elongated habitus, laterally oblique pronotal basal margin and simple (i.e., neither truncated nor incised elytral apex). In 1902, Brues described Anillus affabilis from three specimens collected at Austin, Texas. Two were sifted from a nest of [the army ant Labidus coecus (Latreille)], and one from a nest of [the tropical fire ant] Solenopsis geminata (Fabricius). While A. affabilis may not be strictly myrmecophilous, it is evidently partial to ant nests as a habitation. One additional specimen was collected on April 3, 1903. Sixty years later, Jeannel described this later specimen as a new genus and species. The holotype of Micranillodes depressus is labelled (Yves Bousquet, pers. comm. 2011, to MAQ): Travis Co. Tex. IV.3.03 / 4. / Anillus affabilis Brues / Type / Type 69551 USNM / Micranillodes depressus n. sp. R. Jeannel det., 19”. Thrity-one years after Jeannel's paper, Ed Riley collected in western Travis County what was later determined by Chris Carlton in 2004 to be a second specimen of Micranillodes depressus . The current names of these two species per Bousquet are: Anillinus affabilis (Brues, 1902) Anillinus depressus (Jeannel, 1963) The type specimens of both species are housed in the USNM. Anillinus affabilis (Brues) is still only known from the three original specimens collected at the type locality in central Texas. A. depressus should be included in the next SGCN update.