The staphylinid genus Elmas Blackwelder 1952 (type species: Selma modesta Sharp 1876; type locality: Chontales, Nicaragua) is revised for the first time. Two previously described species, E. modesta (Sharp) from Nicaragua and E. strigella (Bernhauer) from Brazil, are redescribed. Fifteen species are described as new: Elmas brooksi n. sp., Elmas costaricensis n. sp., Elmas elassos n. sp.,Elmas esmeraldas n. sp., Elmas falini n. sp., Elmas gigas n. sp., Elmas guianas n. sp., Elmas hanleyi n. sp., Elmas hibbsi n. sp. Elmas lambas n. sp.,Elmas lescheni n. sp., Elmas anamaensis n. sp., Elmas patillas n. sp., Elmas spinosus n. sp., Elmas windsori n. sp.. Illustrations of structural features and aedeagi are provided for identification of the known species. The phylogenetic relationships of Elmas species are only weakly resolved by the available dataset. Elmas is strongly supported to be a monophyletic lineage, and E. strigella is the most basal species followed by E. lambos and E. guianas respectively. E. spinosus + E. falini + E. gigas are strongly supported to be a monophyletic group; E. hibbsi is weakly supported to be the sister group to these three species. The lineage (E. windsori + E. costaricensis) + (E. panamaensis + E. patillas) is weakly supported in all trees. The lineage E. elassos + E. hanleyi + E. esmeraldas is also weakly supported, and the successive approximation analysis hypothesizes that E. modesta is also a member of this lineage.
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA