The chromosomes of triploid parthenogenetic Helophorus orientalis Motschulsky, 1860 are described from material from two localities in Heilongjiang, China. 3n = 33. All the chromosomes have clear centromeric C-bands, and in the longest chromosome one replicate appears to be consistently longer than the other two. The chromosomes of additional triploid parthenogenetic H. brevipalpis Bedel, 1881, from Spain and Italy, are described. In one Italian population one of the autosomes is represented by only two replicates and another appears more evenly metacentric than in material from Spain and the other Italian locality. Parthenogenetic and bisexual specimens of H. orientalis are illustrated, along with Pleistocene fossil material. Parthenogenetic H. brevipalpis is also illustrated. Parthenogenesis in Hydrophiloidea is discussed. It appears to be rare and, in all cases has been detected by chromosomal analysis of populations in which males are unexpectedly scarce. Parthenogenesis is suspected in Helophorus aquila Angus et al., 2014, from northern Qinghai (China), which should be verified in further studies.
Keywords: Coleoptera; Hydrophiloidea; China; H. brevipalpis; Helophorus orientalis; karyotypes; parthenogenesis; triploidy.
Robert B. Angus, Fenglong Jia.