FIRST RECORD OF HELOPHORUS VILLOSUS DÜFTSCHMID, 1805 (COLEOPTERA: HYDROPHYLOIDEA: HELOPHORIDAE) IN UKRAINE

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Shatrovskiy O. G. Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University, 4, Svobody Sqr., Kharkiv, 61022, UKRAINE; e-mail: ashatrovskiy@karazin.ua ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Received 05.11.2018 Accepted 17.12.2018 by Dr. Yu. O. Guglya Published 21.12.2018 UDC 595.763.1:591.4/.5:591.9(477) DOI: 10.36016/KhESG-2018-26-2-1


I n t r o d u c t i o n .
Helophorus villosus Düftschmid, 1805 has previously been known only from Central Europe (Przewoźny, 2019). Given its infrequent occurrences, it was included in the Lists of Rare Species and/or in the Red Books of European countries.
Thus, it was referred to as endangered species for East Bavaria in Germany (Hebauer et al., 2003) and as critically endangered in the Red List of Czech Republic (Trávníček, Fikáček, Boukal, 2005).
The author found some specimens of H. villosus in material from the Odessa Region, which are the first records from Ukraine. M a t e r i a l s a n d m e t h o d s . Two specimens of H. villosus are collected by Maria Grandova (Ukrainian Scientific Centre of Ecology of the Sea, Odessa), specialist on aquatic Heteroptera from Odessa.
One specimen is in collection of Vsevolod Zakharenko, probably collected in a hydrobiological expedition organized by the Department of Zoology of the Kharkiv Zooveterinary Institute, headed by Prof. Yefim Lukin.
Both collectors used common hydrobiological hand-net. A specimen from the collection of the Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg, collected by Franz Hebauer and determined by Robert Angus (Hebauer, 1983), was used for making photo of male genitalia (Fig. 1f).
The specimens were examined under a MBS-9 microscope. Images of genital structures were made using Levenhuk D320L microscope with C310T NG Digital Camera.

R e s u l t s a n d d i s c u s s i o n s .
Helophorus villosus is a very distinctive species. It is recognized by yellow pronotum of a characteristic form (Fig. 1b) and specific combination of other characters (see below).

F a m i l y H E L O P H O R I D A E Leach, 1815 G e n u s H e l o p h o r u s Fabricius, 1775 S u b g e n u s R h o p a l o h e l o p h o r u s Kuwert, 1886
= Atractohelophorus Kuwert, 1886 Valid subgeneric name Rhopalohelophorus in the modern interpretation is used for both subgenera described by Kuwert: Rhopalohelophorus and Atractohelophorus. The latter name is considered now as a synonym of valid name.

H e l o p h o r u s v i l l o s u s
One specimen from Bavaria was used for a photo of aedeagophore (Fig. 1f): Germania, Bavaria, Deggendorf, 08.04.1981 (F. Hebauer) -1 ♂ (Hebauer, 1983) -Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint Petersburg).
C o n c l u s i o n s . Helophorus villosus is recorded from Ukraine for the first time. Probably, it is distributed towards the south of steppe, but occurs over a short period in spring. Based on the information on rare and endangered species in neighboring countries, the author proposes to include H. villosus in the Red Book of Ukraine.
A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s . The author is thankful to Maria Grandova for providing collected material, and to Alexander Slutskiy (Kharkiv Entomological Society) for the images to this article.