Database

The database of the Helobata specimens that we currently have is now complete. There are 244 specimens from 18 countries:

North America: USA (including Bahamas, 74).
Central America: Mexico (5), Belize (8), Guatemala (4), Nicaragua (1), Costa Rica (4), Panama (4).
Caribbean: Jamaica (39), Dominican Republic (5), Puerto Rico (1), Trinidad & Tobago (4).
South America: Venezuela (19), Guyana (19), Suriname (3), Ecuador (17), Peru (5), Brazil (3), Bolivia (25), Paraguay (2), Argentina (2).

You can access part of the records by browsing the lab's database at http://creac.kubiodiversityinstitute.org/collections/

A high proportion of the specimens was collected at light traps. According to Oliva (see Oliva et al. 2002) most species perform dispersal flights during the night and also during high humidity noons, which allows hydrophilids to move from a water source to another to escape desiccation. That's why they become attracted to artificial lights.

Next step is to continue looking for external differences that can be coded as characters. As external morphology is highly homogeneous, we will need to appeal to internal structures, where the male genitalia will provide the most informative set of characters.

Another fact about this particular set of specimens is that in several cases they are the only specimen (or only a few) collected at the same locality. If they are only females, that is going to complicate things because so far, the female genitalia does not provide useful characters... Let´s see, we need to explore!

References:

• Oliva, L., L. A. Fernández & A.O. Bachmann. 2002. Sinopsis de los Hydrophiloidea acuáticos de la Argentina (Insecta, Coleoptera). Monografías del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales. 2: 1-67