A morphological perspective of North American Mordellini (Mordellidae: Mordellinae)

The family Mordellidae Lateille (Coleoptera), colloquially known as the tumbling flower beetles, consist of approxemently 1,500 globally recognized species.  The majority of adult mordellds feed on pollen and may be a greatly over looked pollinator of the amazon rainforest. Despite their potential as pollinators, higher level and generic-level systematics of this family remains in disarray, primarily owing to almost a complete lack of understanding regarding species diversity of this group, in addition to poorly understood diagnostic features at the generic level. This study tests the monophyly of the only North American tribe Mordellini with some phylogenetic resolution and all included genera. Special attention is placed on the study of character evolution with the objective of elucidating characters useful in defining generic limits. This analysis will help to clarify the current understanding of North American Mordellini diversity and provide a frame work for future studies.