Observation date: April 22, 2026
Submitted by: LightScavenger
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: Lots of these guys on La Luz, west side of Sandias. Not totally sure that's east of the Rio Grande rift so I'm not sure I got the subspecies right.
Status: Resident
Verified by: stevecary
Verified date: April 24, 2026
Coordinator notes: Yes, you got the ID correct, but it may take a while for BAMONA to revise its internal taxonomy to accommodate the very recent change from Mexican Metalmark to Apache Metalmark. So I accept it as Mexican, but you and I will know it is Apache. As far as subspecies is concerned, BAMONA does not ID down to that taxonomic level (thank god). Following Zhang et al. (2026) "riftoria" is the name that applies to your bug; in fact you may have been very close to the type locality. The true limits of riftoria, whether east or west of the Rift, remains to be determined; there will likely be some within the rift, as well, depending on whose definition of rift is used.
