Triaging the Phyllobaenus from “Phyllobaenus”: A preliminary assessment of the New World Hydnocerini (Coleoptera: Cleridae: Hydnocerinae)

The recent discovery of morphological synapomorphy in various Phyllobaenus species groups in combination with the suspected synonymy of Wolcottia and Isohydnocera (the other two New World genera of Hydnocerini) and recent molecular evidence indicate the presence of only one valid "supergenus" in need of subdivision.  Multilocus analyses (COI, 16S, 18S, 28S, wingless, EF1a; over 8000bp; 8 partitions) using Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood phylogenies were produced representing approximately 30% of the world clerid genera of all subfamilies and over 150 species.  The tribe Hydnocerini was recovered monophyletic.  Wolcottia was not included int he analysis.  However, no New World genus of Hydnocerini (i.e., Phyllobaenus or Isohydnocera) was recovered as monophyletic in either analysis.  The recovered clades instead represent species groups united by elytral form.  The previously published synapomorphies, tarsal claw character states, for all three genera are revealed to be uninformative and historically misused characteristics for generic delimitation.  A Maximum Parsimony analysis was performed with the addition of elytral characters. The resulting phylogenetic relationships within the "supergenus" Phyllobaenus matched those of the molecular analyses.  The need for synonymizing the non-Phyllobaenus New World genera is discussed, species groups and future genera within the New World Hydnocerini are identified, and their synapomorphies are presented.