The eve of revolution: Molecular data reshuffle Paederinae

Paederinae is one of the larger subfamilies in the family Staphylinidae (Coleoptera), with about 230 genera comprising two tribes and 12 subtribes. Although there have been controversies about their classification, mostly about taxonomic ranks, this conventional classification is now widely accepted. In contrast to several studies on the phylogeny of Staphylininae, sister taxon of Paederinae, only a few isolated, mostly morphological, approaches on subgroups exist for the latter. Neither the phylogenetic relationships of the subtribes, nor the monophyly of the tribes have been assessed so far. With the molecular study at hand, a 5 gene dataset with almost every subtribe represented, the first picture of a consistent phylogeny of Paederinae can be drawn. This phylogenetic hypothesis contained some bold and surprising statements. Nevertheless, these are actually sensible when considering some morphological characters. If corroborated by further data and analyses, this may eventually lead to a substantial reclassification in the subfamily of Paederinae.