Phylogeny
Guides
Apodrosus
Apodrosus is a genus of broad-nosed weevils in the beetle family Curculionidae. Its accepted species are Caribbean, with Cuban species receiving a dedicated revision that described nine species new to science. Identification is supported by species descriptions and a key rather than by a single genus-level field mark. A molecular study recovered Apodrosus as monophyletic, while the sampled Cuban species did not form one exclusive group.
Carelis
Carelis is a genus of noctuid moths described by Bowden in 1956. A 2010 systematic study treated it among African stem-borer genera and found that its then-current circumscription was paraphyletic. The group has received substantial taxonomic attention, but the available evidence here does not support a genus-wide description of adult appearance, habitat, or behavior.
Crustacea
crustaceans
Crustacea is a major subphylum of arthropods encompassing approximately 67,000 described species, with estimates suggesting this represents only 1-10% of actual diversity. The group includes familiar aquatic forms such as crabs, lobsters, shrimp, krill, and barnacles, as well as terrestrial representatives like woodlice. Crustaceans are united by biramous (two-parted) limbs and characteristic larval development, often involving a nauplius stage. Current phylogenetic understanding places Crustacea as paraphyletic with respect to Hexapoda (insects and allies), with both groups now combined in the clade Pancrustacea. The subphylum exhibits extraordinary morphological diversity, ranging from the 100-micrometer Stygotantulus stocki to the Japanese spider crab with a 3.8-meter leg span.
Davidina
Davidina is a genus of satyrine butterflies in the family Nymphalidae, named by Oberthür in 1879. A 2020 phylogenetic revision recognizes nine species across the Holarctic, with the range extending into Europe and North America. Its wing pattern was described as pierid-like, and its classification has changed as anatomical and molecular evidence accumulated. The revision places Davidina close to Protoeneis rather than Oeneis sensu stricto.
Dolerini
Dolerini is a tribe of sawflies in the subfamily Selandriinae, comprising two genera: Dolerus Panzer and Prionourgus Goulet. Dolerus, the dominant genus, contains 72 Nearctic species organized into seven subgenera and one species group, while Prionourgus is monotypic. Members are distinguished by structural characters used in cladistic analyses to reconstruct species relationships. The tribe has undergone extensive taxonomic revision, with numerous new species and subgenera described from across the Nearctic region.
Epactoidini
Epactoidini is a tribe of scarab beetles in the subfamily Scarabaeinae. A 2022 study established the tribe from a group of paleotropical dung beetle genera and supported its unity with both morphological and molecular evidence. The study treated Grebennikovius, Epactoides, and Ochicanthon as the principal genera in the group. Its members are notable in the literature for a strongly disjunct distribution across parts of Africa, Madagascar, Réunion, and the Oriental region, together with a long history inferred from phylogenetic analyses.
Eriosomatini
Eriosomatini is a tribe of gall-forming aphids in the subfamily Eriosomatinae, comprising approximately 140 species across 16 genera. All members induce galls on host plants in the family Ulmaceae, primarily on Ulmus (elms) and Zelkova species. The tribe exhibits complex life cycles with alternation between primary and secondary hosts, though some species have reduced or lost host alternation. Molecular studies have demonstrated that DNA sequencing can reliably associate morphologically distinct life stages to species, addressing a major identification challenge in the group.
Eudiagogini
Eudiagogini is a tribe of broad-nosed weevils (Curculionidae: Entiminae) comprising approximately 98 extant species in 10 genera, with highest diversity in the Neotropics. The tribe is characterized by distinctive morphological synapomorphies including a cavernous prementum and a metaventrite bearing a spine-like swelling anterior to each metacoxa. Phylogenetic analyses based on morphology and molecular data (COI and ribosomal markers) confirm the monophyly of Eudiagogini, though the genus Chileudius has been excluded and placed as incertae sedis within Entiminae. The tribe has a fossil record in Eocene European amber, indicating a broader historical distribution.
Heterogyrus
Heterogyrus is a genus of whirligig beetles in the family Gyrinidae. Taxonomic listings recognize one living species, Heterogyrus milloti. That Malagasy beetle is notable in comparative studies of gyrinid evolution because its anatomy retains a distinctive combination of head and thoracic characters.
Hexamatia
Hexamatia is a genus of comb-tailed spiders in the family Hahniidae. Rivera-Quiroz, Petcharad and Miller described the genus in 2020 while documenting Hahniidae from Thailand. The same study described Hexamatia seekhaow and established the new combination Hexamatia senaria. The genus was examined with DNA sequences and morphological evidence to assess its position among the six-eyed hahniids and its relationship to Hahnia.
Hygrotini
Hygrotini is a tribe of small diving beetles in the subfamily Hydroporinae. The tribe contains approximately 137 species, most of which inhabit freshwater environments. Multiple lineages have independently evolved tolerance to saline and hypersaline conditions, with some species surviving in concentrations more than double that of seawater.
Hypocephalus
Hypocephalus is a beetle genus placed in the longhorn-beetle family Cerambycidae by GBIF. The evidence summarized here centers on H. armatus, called the mole beetle, rather than on genus-wide natural history. That species is documented from Brazil’s Cerrado and Caatinga, and its evolutionary position remains unsettled.
Ichneumonosoma
Ichneumonosoma is a genus of fruit flies in the family Tephritidae, established by Meijere in 1914. GBIF currently lists five accepted species, while a 2015 revision treated the genus alongside three related genera and provided a key to its species. The published record includes a new Thai record for I. imitans, but that species-level locality should not be read as the range of the entire genus. A morphological and molecular study supported the genus as a monophyletic group, although its relationships to some neighboring tephritid lineages remained unresolved.
Leptocircini
Kite Swallowtails, Swordtails, and Jays
Leptocircini is a tribe of swallowtail butterflies (family Papilionidae) comprising approximately 162 species across nine genera. The group includes the kite swallowtails (Eurytides), swordtails (Graphium), and dragontails (Lamproptera). This tribe represents roughly 25% of global swallowtail diversity and is distributed throughout the tropics of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. Recent phylogenomic studies have clarified previously unresolved relationships within the tribe, leading to significant taxonomic revisions including the synonymization of several genera and subgenera.
Limnoporus
pondskaters
Limnoporus is a Holarctic genus of water striders (family Gerridae) comprising six extant species and one extinct species known from fossils. Species occur across northern North America and Eurasia, with notable hybridization between sympatric species in western Canada. The genus exhibits variation in body size, wing polymorphism, and habitat preferences that have been studied in phylogenetic and evolutionary contexts.
Mischonyx
Mischonyx is a genus of armored harvestmen (Opiliones) in the family Gonyleptidae. A 2021 phylogenetic revision recognized 17 species, all reported from Brazil, and placed the genus across several Atlantic Forest areas of endemism. The genus is identified through a combination of morphological and molecular evidence rather than by a single simple field mark. Research on named species also documents specialized digestion and a possible defensive leg-tapping behavior.
Ogyges
Ogyges is a genus of passalid beetles (family Passalidae) described by Kaup in 1871. A 2018 phylogenetic study treated 27 species in three related groups. The genus is documented in Nuclear Central America, from Chiapas, Mexico, to northwestern Nicaragua. Its species groups have largely separate ranges across the Maya and Chortis biogeographic blocks.
Palaephatidae
Palaephatidae is the sole family in the moth superfamily Palaephatoidea. These small, early-diverging moths are often called Gondwanaland moths because their living distribution is split among southern landmasses. The family contains about seven genera and 57 species, with its main concentration in southern Chile.
Paniscomima
Paniscomima is a genus of wasps in the family Rhopalosomatidae. A 2007 revision treated 11 nominal species, described four as new, and supplied a key for identifying the genus's species. Its phylogenetic analysis grouped Southeast Asian species together, with a sister species from Madagascar and a basal grouping of African species that also included Madagascar. The revision describes cricket parasitism as a family-level trait; the available evidence does not establish host details for particular Paniscomima species.
Pararrhynchium
Pararrhynchium is a genus of potter wasps in the subfamily Eumeninae. A 2007 catalogue listed nine species, and taxonomic descriptions since then have added species from Taiwan and northern Vietnam; a later revision also transferred P. subfistulosum into the genus. Taxonomic records place the genus in East and Southeast Asia, while a broad encyclopedia summary characterizes its range as Palearctic and Indomalayan. Genome-based work places it among closely related eumenine genera whose morphology can be difficult to distinguish.
Phlaeopterus
Phlaeopterus is a genus of omaliine rove beetles containing 22 species distributed across northwestern North America and eastern Asia. The genus exhibits notable evolutionary transitions in body size, with two independent origins of large-bodied adults (exceeding 5 mm) from a small-bodied common ancestor. Large-bodied species are exclusively associated with alpine snowfield habitats, though statistical support for this correlation remains unconfirmed. The genus is monophyletic based on combined molecular and morphological phylogenetic analyses.
Prodoxus
Bogus Yucca Moths
Prodoxus is a genus of moths in the family Prodoxidae comprising approximately 22 species, commonly known as bogus yucca moths. Unlike their pollinating relatives in the genus Tegeticula, Prodoxus species are non-pollinating yucca moths that exploit yucca plants as hosts without providing mutualistic services. The genus exhibits diverse feeding specializations, with larvae feeding on yucca flowering stalks, fruits, or leaves depending on the species. Host-associated divergence and incipient speciation have been documented, with specialization closely tied to host plant shifts.
Protopselaphus
Protopselaphus is a genus of rove beetles in the family Staphylinidae and the sole genus of the subfamily Protopselaphinae. Its head anatomy has been examined in detail using micro-computed tomography and scanning electron microscopy. That work places the genus in a phylogenetically informative group with Pselaphinae, while some relationships among nearby subfamilies remain less certain.
Scoliini
Scoliini is a cosmopolitan tribe within the family Scoliidae, a group of large-bodied parasitoid wasps commonly known as mammoth wasps or scoliid wasps. The tribe includes genera such as Scolia, Megascolia, Triscolia, and Microscolia. Recent phylogenetic studies indicate that Scoliini is closely related to the genus Colpa, with which it forms a clade sister to the remaining Campsomerini. Many genera within Scoliini, including Megascolia and Scolia, have been inferred to be non-monophyletic based on molecular data.
Stenurella
Stenurella is a genus of longhorn beetles in the family Cerambycidae. A 2022 morphological and molecular revision treated six species as Stenurella sensu novo and transferred three former members to Rutpela, so published species counts depend on the taxonomic treatment being followed. The revised group is described as small-bodied and broadly Palaearctic. The same study discusses its resemblance to Rutpela as convergent mimicry toward ants or wasps.
Sternolophus
Sternolophus is an accepted genus of hydrophilid beetles, named by Solier in 1834. Its placement and species-level relationships have been studied through adult morphology. A genus-wide phylogenetic analysis recovered two major subclades corresponding to groups previously treated as subgenera, but did not reinstate those subgenera.