Brachycybe millipedes

This is really a note-to-self to help find this info at a later time:

Thanks to comments from Angie Macias (@herebespiders11, West Virginia University) and Xavier Zahnle (@zahnlexj, University of California, Davis). What species of Brachycybe are in the NorCal area and how to tell apart.

Brachycybe producta https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/154895-Brachycybe-producta
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37805397
"The two species in the area are B. rosea and B. producta, this one is B. producta by color pattern and body width."
"No problem! iNat is pretty good for showing the diversity of the Andrognathidae (this millipede family) in CA. Some genera to flip through are Brachycybe, Gosodesmus, Ischnocybe, and Mitocybe. In California, the Brachycybe species are B. producta (throughout the state), B. rosea (northern CA, primarily in the Sierras), and B. picta (very rare, known only from Marin and Mendocino Counties)."
~AMacias
Other observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/18909630

Brachycybe rosea https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/84435-Brachycybe-rosea
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67942093 (both species in photo)
"You found both Sierra Nevada species! The B. producta in this picture are tawny orange with the bolder dark stripe and have a notch behind the side-plates (paranota) of each segment. B. rosea are reddish- or pinkish-orange and have smooth paranota. I'm ID'ing this record as B. rosea because you have another record of B. producta nearby."
"Glad I can help! The populations of both species tend to mingle a lot in the foothills above Sacramento, but when you see the two right next to each other the differences become super obvious."
~XZahnle

Brachycybe picta https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/154914-Brachycybe-picta
"...B. picta (very rare, known only from Marin and Mendocino Counties)"
~AMacias

Posted on August 11, 2021 02:01 PM by cnddb_brian cnddb_brian