Satanic Ground Beetle (Trechus satanicus)
The Satanic Ground Beetle was described in 1962, it was apparently restricted to a place named Graveyard Fields in Haywood County, North Carolina, USA.
The beetle reached a size of about 0,36 cm in length.
The species is considered likely extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Mitchell’s Ground Beetle was described in 1962, this species is known from at least three localities in the Black Mountains in Yancey County in North Carolina, USA.
The species reached a size of 0,36 to 0,42 cm in length. [1]
The species is considered likely extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Columbian Livermoss (Plagiochila columbiana)
The Columbian Livermoss was described in 1896 based on material that had been collected from partly inundated rocks in- and along the Eno River in North Carolina; it was furthermore recorded from Virginia and Washington D.C..
The taxon is superficially similar to Fern-like Livermoss (Plagiochila asplenioides (L.) Dumort.) but can be distinguished from that species by the ragged outlines of its leaves and by the irregularity in the number and position of their teeth; however, it is very likely that both forms are conspecific after all and that the Columbian Livermoss’s description was just based on weakly-developed specimens of the other species.
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References:
[1] Alexander W. Evans: Notes on the North American species of Plagiochila. Botanical Gazette 21(4): 185-194. 1896
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edited: 27.02.2024
Roan Mountain Ground Beetle (Trechus roanicus)
The Roan Mountain Ground Beetle was described in 1962, it was originally only known from its type locality, Roan High Bluff, the highest point on Roan Mountain in Tennessee, USA.
The species apparently is thought to occur in North Carolina as well, but I have no further information about that. [1]
The Roan Mountain Ground Beetle is considered possibly extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Toothless Virginia Livermoss (Plagiochila virginica var. euryphylla)
The Toothless Virginia Livermoss, a variety of the Virginia Livermoss that can be distinguished from the normal form by the lack of teeth on its leaves, was found only once in 1949 on rocks below Windy Falls, a waterfall in the Horsepasture River Gorge in Transylvania County of North Carolina, USA.
The taxon has never found since and is considered extinct.
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edited: 27.02.2024
Bigleaf Snakeroot (Orbexilum macrophyllum)
The Bigleaf Snakeroot aka. Large-leaved Leather-root was described in 1919; it is endemic to the Tyron Mountains in North Carolina, USA.
The species has never been found since 1899 when the type material was collected; it may well be extinct.
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The photo below shows a congeneric taxon, the Eastern Sampson’s Snakeroot (Orbexilum psoralioides(Walter) Vincent), photographed in North Carolina, USA.
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edited: 22.01.2024
Unicoi Mountains Ground Beetle (Trechus luculentus ssp. unicoi)
The Unicoi Mountains Ground Beetle was described in 1979, this subspecies of the Luminous Ground Beetle (Trechus luculentus Barr) is known only from the type locality, Stratton Meadows a place that extends from Monroe County, Tennessee to Graham County in North Carolina, USA. [1]
This form is considered possibly extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Fine Ground Beetle (Trechus subtilis)
The Fine Ground Beetle was described in 1962, it is known only from its type locality, Mt. Sterling in Haywood County, North Carolina, USA; apparently only nine specimens have ever been collected. [1]
The species is considered possibly extinct now.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Carolina Ground Beetle (Trechus carolinae)
The Carolina Ground Beetle was described in 1901, it apparently is known only from its type locality, Mt. Mitchell in Yancey County, North Carolina, USA.
The species reaches a size of up to 0,5 cm. [1]
The Carolina Ground Beetle is considered likely extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Clingmans Dome Ground Beetle (Trechus novaculosus)
This species, described in 1962, was restricted to its type locality, Clingmans Dome in Sevier County in Tennessee, USA. [1]
The species is thought to have also occurred in North carolina, however, I’m unable to find any additional information.
The species is thought to be extinct now.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Rosenberg’s Ground Beetle (Trechus rosenbergi)
Rosenberg’s Ground Beetle was described in 1962, it is apparently known only from a single locality, the Water Rock Knob in Haywood- and Jackson counties, North Carolina, USA.
The species reached a size of up to 0,5 cm.
Rosenberg’s Ground Beetle is considered most likely extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Luminous Ground Beetle (Trechus luculentus ssp. luculentus)
The Luminous Ground Beetle, described in 1962, is apparently restricted to its type locality, Clingmans Dome in Swain County, North Carolina, USA. [1]
The species, respectively this nominate form of it, is considered likely extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Balsam Ground Beetle (Trechus balsamensis)
This species was described in 1962, it is, or rather was, apparently restricted to its type locality, a place named Water Rock Knob in Haywood County, North Carolina, USA.
The beetles inhabited spruce-fir forests where they could be found beneath moss carpets. [1]
The species is considered likely extinct.
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References:
[1] Thomas C. Barr Jr.: Revision of Appalachian Trechus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Brimleyana 2: 29-75. 1979
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edited: 07.09.2020
Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis ssp. carolinensis)
The Carolina Parakeet was one of only two parrot species that are truly native to the USA (the other one is the Thick-billed Parakeet (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha (Swainson)) which, however, is now extinct there and only survives in northern Mexico).
The Chickasaw people named the bird ‘kelinky’, the Seminoles again named it ‘pot pot chee’ or ‘puzzi la née’.
The species had a very wide distributional area in the southern USA, where it inhabited old-growth wetland forests along rivers and swamps. The parakeets had a preference for the seeds of the Rough Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium L.) (see lso depiction below), a plant that contains toxic glucoside, making the flesh of the birds poisonous to predators (the American naturalist and painter John J. Audubon noted that cats apparently died from eating them).
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The Carolina Parakeet was considered a crop pest and birds were shot by the thousands. Some also ended in the feather trade, in which it apparently was especially popular to dye the originally very colorful birds completely black – such blackened specimens are still kept in several museums.
The last known Carolina Parakeet, a male named Incas, died in the Zoo of Cincinnati, Ohio at February 21, 1918. Yet, in the wild the species apparently survived for several years longer, this can be assumed from eggs that are kept in a museum and that had been collected in Florida in the year 1927.
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The Carolina Parakeet wasn’t particularly popular in the aviculture, especially because of its loud, harsh voice, however, the ornithologist Hans Freiherr von Berlepsch at the end of he 19th century kept a free-flying population in Germany which, being well-adapted to the European climate was thriving very well. This little population, that could have been the lifeline for the whole species, however, was shot by the innkeeper of a little pub in a neighboring village within only two days.
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edited: 20.01.2020