Blethisa Bonelli, 1810

Bousquet, Yves, 2012, Catalogue of Geadephaga (Coleoptera, Adephaga) of America, north of Mexico, ZooKeys 245, pp. 1-1722 : 261

Genus Blethisa Bonelli, 1810

Blethisa Bonelli, 1810: 48, Tabula Synoptica. Type species: Carabus multipunctatus Linnaeus, 1758 designated by Dejean (1826: 266). Etymology. Unknown [feminine].

Helobium Leach, 1815: 83. Type species: Carabus multipunctatus Linnaeus, 1758 by monotypy. Etymology. From the Greek helos (marsh, meadow) and bios (life) [neuter].

Rhaphiona Fischer von Waldheim [in Zoubkoff], 1829: 155. Type species: Blethisa eschscholtzii Zoubkoff, 1829 by monotypy. Synonymy established by Lindroth (1954a: 13). Etymology (original). From the Greek rhaphion (awl), alluding to the shape of the palpi (" palpes subuliformes ") of the adults [feminine].

Diversity.

Eight species in the arctic, subarctic, boreal, and temperate areas of North America (six species) and Eurasia (four species). Two species-group taxa are Holarctic ( Blethisa catenaria and Blethisa multipunctata aurata ).

Identification.

Lindroth (1954a) reviewed the species and subsequently treated all the North American species in his monograph of the Carabidae of Canada and Alaska (Lindroth 1961a: 104-108). Goulet and Smetana (1983) provided a key to all known species.

Faunistic Note.

Blethisa eschscholtzii Zoubkoff has been recorded from North American on the basis of a single specimen in USNM labeled "5 mi. E Sanderson, Texas" (Lindroth 1954b: 157). Obviously the specimen is mislabeled. The species is restricted to the region north of the Caspian Sea and the area around Lake Balkhash in southeastern Kazakhstan.