Gelasimus affinis was originally used by Guérin-Méneville for a species which he later realized was already described as Gelasimus tetragonon (Herbst, 1790), making affinis a junior synonym.
The name was later independently used by Streets (1872) to describe a species from the Caribbean. Since the name was preoccupied by Guérin-Méneville's original use, it was unavailable to Streets, and this second species is now known as Minuca burgersi (Holthuis, 1967).