North American Crypticini are mostly South American, and spreading (Coleoptera:Tenebrionidae)

The North American members of the tribe Crypticini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) are reviewed, with diagnoses and a key. The native Gondwanocrypticus obsoletus (Say) is separated from two others, G. platensis (Fairmaire) and G. pictus (Gebien), identified as introductions from South America and often associated with imported fire ants, as is the related Poecilocrypticus formicophilus Gebien. All four species occur on open sandy soil habitats in the southeastern United States and G. platensis also has recently colonized southern California; their known distributions are discussed. A fifth species, the Asian Ellipsodes scriptus (Lewis), was reported from Maryland in earlier literature but no specimens have been found and it is presumably not established in North America.