Phengodinae

Zaragoza-Caballero, Santiago & Zurita-García, Martín Leonel, 2015, A preliminary study on the phylogeny of the family Phengodidae (Insecta: Coleoptera), Zootaxa 3947 (4), pp. 527-542 : 540

Subfamily Phengodinae

Phengodinae is recovered as non-monophyletic. The relationship between Pseudophengodes and Microphengodes was previously proposed ( Wittmer 1976b). The species differ by the size of eyes, body length, apex of the last labial segment and last abdominal segments with or without luminous organs. Among all phengodids adults, Pseudophengodes have luminous organs only. Zarhipis differ from Phengodes by lacking sulci and antennal tubercles, eyes are reduced, elytra long, and tarsi lacking an aerolium.

Given the results of this work we propose to re-circumscribe the Phengodidae (incl. Mastinocerinae and Phengodinae ) as: antennal tubercles absent (3:1); antennae 12-segmented (10:0); third antennomere wider than long (16:0); galea developed (36:1); aedeagus with the flagellum visible (60:0).

As final remarks we suggest a close relation of Telegeusidae with Phengodidae based on the present morphological analysis. The family Telegeusidae as new circumscribed include the genera Adendrocera , Acladocera, Pseudokarumia , Pseudotelegeusis, Tarsakanthus , Telegeusis and Walterius . So, the family Phengodidae is constituted by all genera included traditionally in the subfamilies Phengodinae and Mastinocerinae but in this work we do not propose any subfamilies for this new circumscription. Although supported by our results, the monophyly of these two principal clades still requires a more rigorous test that should include a major sample of terminals.