armatus armatus ( Zetterstedt, 1849): 3093 ( Dolichopus) (Haliday in Walker et al., 1851: 190). Type locality: Denmark: Rosenthal, Gryphium. Distribution: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Mongolia, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia ( Arkhangelsk, Kamchatka, Karelia, Krasnoyarsk, Murmansk, Nenetsia, Ekaterinburg, Yakutia, Yamal), Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey, UK; [here excluded from St. Helena].
armatus deserti Vaillant, 1953: 11 (as var. of C. armatus), Negrobov, 1991: 59 (as a subsp. of C. armatus). Type locality: not given [Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria]. Distribution: Algeria.
armatus caffer Curran, 1926: 15, stat. nov. Lectotype and paralectotype in NMSA (examined). Type locality: South Africa: Mpumalanga: Barberton. Distribution: South Africa, Namibia.
The nominotypical subspecies inhabits mainly boreal and temperate belts of the Palearctic Region. C. a. deserti from North Africa and C. a. caffer from southern Africa inconspicuously differs in leg setation; they are also both slightly smaller than C. a. armatus (1.5-2 vs. 2.5 mm). Therefore, the two African subspecies may represent a different species with a remarkable disjunctive pattern of distribution. A male and females from St. Helena identified by Vanschuytbroeck (1976) as C. armatus [RMCA, examined], belongs apparently to different species as they have brownish yellow rather than black body, and a male and a female are described here as a new species, C. flavissimus. Therefore, the species is here excluded from St. Helena fauna.