1915.] 233 



STUDIES IN HELOPHORINI. 

 BY D. SHARP, M.A., F.R.S. 



7.—HEL0PH0RUS. 



Helophortjs Fabr. (ElopJwrus). 



RhopalohelojjJiorus Kuwert. Wien. eut. Zeit. v, 1886, p. 247 (this 

 name is omitted from the Zool. Recoi'd and Index zoologicus). 



It is in tliis o'enus that we encounter most of the difficulties that 

 are connected with the study of HelojjJiorini. It consists of a great 

 many species, extremely closely allied, without any strong distinctive 

 characters, while such as do exist are variable. The earlier writers on 

 it treated it in so inadequate a manner that, their " types " not having 

 been preserved, what they specially intended in any particular case is 

 usually completely guess-work. The difliculties encoimtered in the 

 study of HeJopliorus are of two kinds — natural and artificial. 



Taking first the artificial we find they commence with the 

 foundation of the genus by Fabricius (Syst. Ent., 1775, p. Qii). He 

 founded Elophortis on no characters that had any validity, and com- 

 posed it of two species, aquaticus Linn, and minvtns sp.n. I have 

 already (aide p. 3) alluded to the nomenclatorial position, and need 

 bere, therefore, only elaborate it by remarking that " aquaticns " having 

 become by Kuwert' s proceeding the type of MeghelopJiorus, the second 

 and only other species included by Fabricius should be the type of 

 Helophorus. But this species is unknown and has disappeared from 

 literature. Thus it actvially happens that at this moment Helophorus 

 is a genus withovit a type, though it includes a very large number of 

 species. CJndei- these circiam stances it is highly desirable to ascertain 

 what the lost ElojjJwrus minntus of Fabricius really was. The type is 

 not in the British Museum, and I can find nothing to rely on except 

 the original description ; there is no tradition or tacit agreement, as 

 authors have always been contradictory and confused in their interpre- 

 tation of the older descriptions of species of Helojjhorvs. I give 

 Fabricius' description hei-ewith, E. minutus : " fuscus, thorace rugoso, 

 aeneo, elytris pallidis. Habitat in Angliaeaquis staguantibus. Forte 

 E. aquatici varietas triplo minor. Statiira et color exacte idem, exceptis 

 solis elytris pallidis." It must be an English si^ecies with conspicuously 

 pale elytra, therefoi-e, and the name, I conclude, should apply to the 

 species we call grisens Hei'bst. It is true that there are two other 

 English species — affinis and diffinis — that also accord with the 



