Abstract Karyological analysis has been carried out on Stictotarsus griseostriatus (De Geer, 1774) from Tjøme in southern Norway, one of the type localities of Deronectes maritimus Helliesen, 1890, as well as from the Canton of Valais in the Swiss Alps and Bavaria in the German Alps. True S. griseostriatus is shown to occur over much of the central Alps, and the synonymy of S. griseostriatus var. nigrescens Favre, 1890 is confirmed.  Analysis of Corsican material shows that the species inhabiting the island is S. ibericus Dutton et Angus, 2007. The known distributions of the S. griseostriatus group species occurring in the Alps and on Corsica are given, and Pleistocene fossil material from Starunia in the Ukrainian Carpathians is figured and discussed. A syntype of Potamodytes multilineatus Falkenström, 1922, in Helliesen’s collection in Oslo, is noted and a neotype designated for Deronectes maritimus Helliesen, 1890 as the original material on which the description was based cannot be found.