Suphisellus

[Gary Rosenberg]

Being a malacologist, I probably shouldn't have gotten involved
in the ^Suphisellus^ controversy, but it seemed an easy question
at the time.  Having now looked at the original, Crotch (1873),
Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 4:397, I can state the genus was validly
proposed there.  In this review of American Coleoptera, Crotch
include three species in ^Suphis^: ^S. bicolor^ (Say), ^S.
lineatus^ Horn, and ^S. puncticollis^ n. sp., the last with a two
line description.  Under the heading for ^Colpius^, the next
genus treated, Crotch says "This genus appears to me very near
^Suphis^, the type species of which...(^S. cimicoides^)...I have
not seen.  If these two [^Suphis^ and ^Colpius^] were shown to be
congeneric, the species above under ^Suphis^ might receive the
name ^Suphisellus^."  Thus three species were clearly referred to
the conditionally proposed ^Suphisellus^, and it is available
from Crotch, 1873.

Gary Rosenberg
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
rosenberg at acnatsci.org