174 
Psyche 
[October 
HELOPHORUS AQUATICUS L. IN AMERICA 
By P. J. Daelington Je. 
Helophorus aquaticus L., of which H. grandis III. is cited as 
a synonym, is a common and wide-spread species in Europe, but 
is apparently not recorded from North America. A single spe- 
cimen of the species, however, was taken in a mossy puddle 
beside the upper and smaller of the Eagle Lakes on the shoulder 
of Mt. Lafayette, N. H., at about 4100 ft. elevation. The insect 
was taken on Apr. 20, 1927, which was said at Boston to be the 
warmest April day in the history of the weather bureau. The 
so-called “ Lakes” were almost entirely frozen over and contained 
no visible insect life, but the flood pools were warmed by the sun 
and yielded over a dozen species of aquatic beetles. The fauna 
of these Lakes, as determined by a collection made in Sept. 1926, 
is similar to that of the high, exposed pools of the Presidential 
Range about * twenty-five miles to the north and includes such 
arctic species as Ilyhius discedens Shp. and Colymbetes longulus 
Lee. The presence in large numbers of Hydroporus badiellus 
Fall, which is dominant in the Eagle Lakes but apparently 
absent on the Presidential, indicates some difference, however. 
In our funa Helophorus aquaticus is comparable in size only 
with H. fortis Lee. and very large specimens of H. oblongus Lee., 
from both of which it differs conspicuously by having the pro- 
notal disk, except the depressions, densely and coarsely gran- 
ulate, each granule having a median puncture. It is also duller, 
broader, with larger and shallower punctures on the elytral striae 
and flatter elytral intervals. It differs from all the species of the 
genus in the Leconte collection, and I think from all our other 
North American species, by having a row of large punctures be- 
tween the first and second elytral striae near the base. 
The New Hampshire specimen is 7 mm. long and has the 
pronotum green or coppery where it is not obscured. It has been 
compared with a series in the Museum of Comparative Zoology 
Cambridge labeled “ Germany” and “Austria/’ and determined 
as H. grandis III., with which it seems to be specifically identical. 
It answers perfectly to the description of H. aquaticus L. in 
