Revision of Brazilian species of Aleochara Gravenhorst of the subgenus Xenochara Mulsant & Rey (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae)

Aleochara species occur in fly-infested habitats. The larvae feed on the pupae of cyclorraphous Diptera. In Brazil, four subgenera and approximately 30 species have been found. This study provides a taxonomic revision of the Brazilian species of the subgenus Xenochara. Eight species are recognized: A. (X.) puberula Klug, 1833, A. (X.) verberans Erichson, 1839, A. (X.) simulatrix Sharp, 1883, A. (X.) taeniata Erichson, 1839, A. (X.) capitinigra sp. nov., A. (X.) repetita Sharp, 1887, A. (X.) lapidicola (Sahlberg, 1844) and A. (X.) leivasorum sp. nov. One species is revalidated: A. (X.) lapicola, a former junior synonym of A. (X.) taeniata. Two synonyms are proposed: A. opacula Bernhauer, 1901 as a junior synonym of A. (X.) repetita, and A. festiva Pace, 1990 as a junior synonym of A. (X.) lapidicola. Finally, a species key and a checklist with all synonyms are provided for the Brazilian species of Aleochara (Xenochara).

Total-evidence backbone phylogeny of Aleocharinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae)

Phylogenetic studies of Aleocharinae rove beetles, arguably one of the least known and the largest insect lineages, are compromised by its enormous taxonomic diversity. DNA, a powerful resource for phylogenetics, is not available for numerous extant aleocharine species. We provide a broad comparative morphological study of Aleocharinae to frame molecular datasets for total-evidence analyses. Using full-body dissections and slide-mounting techniques for light microscopy supplemented by scanning electron microscopy, we constructed a morphological matrix across all major taxa focused on non-inquiline tribes of Aleocharinae and outgroups. Phylogenetic analyses of this matrix concatenated with earlier published DNA loci and including exemplar taxa lacking molecular data, resolved outstanding controversies and, among other novelties, showed that: the Habrocerinae + Trichophyinae clade is sister group to Aleocharinae; Hypocyphtini are sister to the rest of the "higher Aleocharinae"; Taxicerini are sister to Aleocharini; Hoplandriini and Placusini are nested within a polyphyletic Oxypodini; Hoplandriini are sister to Meoticina; and Actocharini are nested within Liparocephalini. For the first time, morphological synapomorphies are identified for some large clades of Aleocharinae. In addition, 1252 high-resolution microphotographs of aleocharine structures are made available online with the entire matrix for future research.