Necticus Laporte, 1835

Laporte (1835) provided a short discussion of the genus “ Dyneutes” (a misspelling of Dineutus Macleay, 1825, see above) in which he claimed that the genus was relatively unknown to French entomologists. Although he did not know the genus well, the generic description of Dineutus apparently left him with some concerns. Laporte (1835) explained that in the original description the labrum is described as lacking setae, but after performing dissections he found that there are setae. He questioned whether MacLeay (1825) had actually meant the labium, rather than the labrum, and, given that, he considered the “large exotic gyrinids with hidden scutella” to be in the same genus, Dineutus (Laporte, 1835). However, Laporte (1835) decided to erect a new genus, which he called Necticus, to place those gyrinids in case MacLeay (1825) had meant the labrum. His proposal of the nomen Necticus included an indication to Gyrinus kollmani Perty, 1831, making the nomen Necticus a new genus-series nomen according to Article 12.2.5 of the Code. The nomen Necticus Laporte, 1835 is therefore a junior subjective synonym of Dineutus MacLeay, 1825, following Balfour-Browne (1945).

Neave (1939) and Nilsson et al. (1989) recognized the existence of Necticus Laporte, 1835 and its homonymy with Necticus Hope, 1838 (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae). The homonymy has been corrected by substituting Necticus Hope, 1838 with its junior objective synonym Gaurodytes Thomson (Nilsson et al. 1989).