Resolving the intergeneric phylogeny of the large carrion beetles (Staphylinidae: Silphinae: Silphini)

Abstract

The worldwide distributed subfamily of rove beetles Silphinae contains two well‐established tribes, based on both morphological and molecular data. The relationships within the tribe Nicrophorini have been mostly resolved; however, the tribe Silphini still lacks a robust phylogeny. Thus, here we resolved the phylogeny of the tribe based on 42 species of the 114 known species, using five molecular markers. Heterotemna tenuicornis Brullé clustered as sister to Silpha tristis Illiger, making the subgenus Silpha Linnaeus paraphyletic. Consequently, Heterotemna Wollaston is considered a junior subjective synonym of Silpha Linnaeus; requiring the following combinations: Silpha (Silpha) britoi (García & Pérez), comb. nov., Silpha (Silpha) figurata Brullé, comb. rest., and Silpha (Silpha) tenuicornis Brullé, comb. rest. Our estimate of the phylogeny agrees with current generic limits except it revealed that the genus Aclypea Reitter arose from within the genus Silpha, thus making the latter paraphyletic. Some ambiguity remains regarding the confidence of this finding; therefore, we refrain from synonymizing Aclypea until further study. Furthermore, it includes biogeographical information for each genus, which estimates the history of distributions of the Silphini across the Australian, Neotropical, and Oriental regions.