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ABSTRACT In 2000, Cleide Costa published a paper presenting the state of knowledge of the Neotropical Coleopte ra, with a focus on the Brazilian fauna. Twenty-four years later, thanks to the development of the Coleoptera section of the Taxonomic Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna (CTFB - Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil) through the collaboration of 100 coleopterists from all over the globe, we can build on Costa’s work and present an updated overview of the state of knowledge of the beetles from Brazil. There are currently 35,699 species in 4,958 genera and 116 families known to occur in the country, including representatives of all extant suborders and superfamilies. Our data show that the Brazilian beetle fauna is the richest on the planet, concentrating 9% of the world species diversity, with some estimates accounting to up to 15% of the global total. The most diverse family in numbers of genera is Cerambycidae (1,056 genera), while in number of species it is Chrysomelidae (6,079 species). Conotrachelus Dejean, 1835 (Curculionidae) is the most species-rich genus, with 570 species. The French entomologist Maurice Pic is the author who has contributed the most to the naming of species recorded from Brazil, with 1,794 valid names in 36 families, whereas the Brazilians Ubirajara R. Martins and Maria Helena M. Galileo are the only ones among the top-ten authors to have named species in the 21st century. Currently, approximately 144 new species of Brazilian beetles are described each year, and this average is projected to increase in the next decade to 180 species per year, or about one new Brazilian beetle every two days.

Large carrion beetles (Silphidae) are the focus of ongoing behavioral ecology, forensic, ecological, conservation, evolutionary, systematic, and other research, and were recently reclassified as a subfamily of Staphylinidae. Twenty-three analyses in 21 publications spanning the years 1927–2023 that are relevant to the question of the evolutionary origin and taxonomic classification of Silphidae are reviewed. Most of these analyses (20) found Silphidae nested inside Staphylinidae (an average of 4.38 branches deep), two found Silphidae in an ambiguous position, and one found Silphidae outside Staphylinidae, as sister to Hydrophilidae. There is strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that large carrion beetles evolved from within Staphylinidae and good justification for their classification as the subfamily Silphinae of the megadiverse, and apparently now monophyletic, Staphylinidae. Considerable uncertainty remains regarding the interrelationships and monophyly of many staphylinid subfamilies. Nonetheless, the subfamily Tachyporinae was found to be the sister of Silphinae in more analyses (7) than any other subfamily.

The mouthparts and protarsi of adult rove-beetles of the Staphylinine group are examined in detail. We provide descriptions and image plates based on scanning electron micrographs taken from 36 species representing all 10 subfamilies comprising this large staphylinid subunit. We establish groundplan features of the mouthparts for the Staphylinine group and discuss, in detail, aspects and functions of structures that compose the feeding apparatus. A phylogenetic scheme is used to conduct an ancestral character reconstruction of the morphological characters. The potential groundplan features of the characters rendered in our parsimony analysis for the Staphylinine group are: labrum subquadrate or longer than wide; mandible without subapical teeth and retinaculum, with prostheca present, not forming lobe-like projection, and with a mola; maxillary palpomere 4 well-developed, fully sclerotized, similar in width to palpomere 3; ‘glossa’ integrated with prementum plate, sometimes represented by pairs of sensilla basiconica; ‘paraglossa’ with unmodified antero-lateral lobes; labial palpomere 3 from as wide to half as wide as penultimate palpomere. To explain the shape variation of the mandibles, a geometric morphometric analysis was carried out. A character mapping analysis of mandible shapes revealed a trend in the Staphylinine group toward a falcate shape with a narrow base, typically present in some predatory species.

ABSTRACT The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others.

Abstract A new species of the extant staphylinid genus Vicelva Moore & Legner, V. rasilis sp. nov., is reported from mid‐Cretaceous Kachin amber of northern Myanmar. Vicelva rasilis is distinguishable from extant members of Vicelva by the smoother dorsal surface of head, pronotum and elytra, less prominent median projection of clypeus, unnotched mesal edge of mandibles, semiglabrous antennomere 6, and longer tarsomere 1. The pollen‐containing coprolite attached to the beetle and the crystals within the beetle body provide valuable information about the biology and taphonomy of the fossil.

Despite encompassing only about 50 extant species, beetles of the suborder Archostemata have a rich fossil history, being known from the Permian and dominating coleopteran assemblages in the Mesozoic before declining in richness towards the Late Cretaceous. Given the limited diversity of extant archostematans, fossils provide a valuable line of evidence for reconstructing the relationships among its constituent families. Here we re-evaluate the phylogenetic position of the Triassic–Cretaceous genus Notocupes, the most species-rich archostematan taxon in the fossil record. Exquisitely preserved fossils from the Middle Jurassic Haifanggou Formation (Daohugou; ~165 Ma) and mid-Cretaceous amber (~99 Ma) reveal critical differences from Ommatidae in the presence of separated procoxae and overlapping abdominal ventrites. Our analyses confirm that Notocupes is not a member of Ommatidae, but is closely related to Cupedidae. Our fossils reveal that Notocupes possessed unique adaptations for protecting their appendages, such as unusual dorsal pronotal grooves for the reception of antennae and epipleural grooves for the reception of legs, shedding light on ecological interactions in Mesozoic saproxylic habitats. The high similarity between Jurassic and Cretaceous Notocupes provides an exceptional example of long-term morphological stasis, suggesting a consistent microhabitat for the group.

Ptiliidae (featherwing beetles) is a group of minute staphylinoid beetles with a scarce fossil record. Here a second member of the Mesozoic genus Kekveus Yamamoto et al. is reported from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, with detailed morphology obtained through confocal microscopy. Kekveus brevisulcatus Li, Yamamoto, Newton & Cai sp. nov. shares with K. jason Yamamoto et al. the unpaired medial pronotal fovea and narrowly separated transverse metacoxae, but can be separated from the latter based on its less elongate body, shorter pronotal foveae, and much weaker transverse depression on the head. Our phylogenetic analyses support the discheramocephalin affinity of Kekveus, although its relationship with other members of Discheramocephalini cannot be confidently resolved.

Ptiliidae is a group of distinctly miniaturized staphylinoid beetles with a scarce fossil record. Here, we report a new ptiliid genus and species, Crenossidium slipinskii Li, Newton and Cai gen. et sp. nov., from mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar. Crenossidium can be attributed to the subfamily Nossidiinae based on the hind wing morphology, which has also been confirmed through phylogenetic analyses. Crenossidium differs from other extant nossidiine genera in the combination of the wide apical maxillary palpomeres, posteriorly widest pronotal disk, (almost) contiguous procoxae, fewer setae along wing margin, and multidentate pygidium.urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8038D763-6856-4AC5-972C-E20D636137EE.

Beetles constitute the most biodiverse animal order with over 380 000 described species and possibly several million more yet unnamed. Recent phylogenomic studies have arrived at considerably incongruent topologies and widely varying estimates of divergence dates for major beetle clades. Here, we use a dataset of 68 single-copy nuclear protein-coding (NPC) genes sampling 129 out of the 193 recognized extant families as well as the first comprehensive set of fully justified fossil calibrations to recover a refined timescale of beetle evolution. Using phylogenetic methods that counter the effects of compositional and rate heterogeneity, we recover a topology congruent with morphological studies, which we use, combined with other recent phylogenomic studies, to propose several formal changes in the classification of Coleoptera: Scirtiformia and Scirtoidea sensu nov., Clambiformia ser. nov. and Clamboidea sensu nov., Rhinorhipiformia ser. nov., Byrrhoidea sensu nov., Dryopoidea stat. res., Nosodendriformia ser. nov. and Staphyliniformia sensu nov., and Erotyloidea stat. nov., Nitiduloidea stat. nov. and Cucujoidea sensu nov., alongside changes below the superfamily level. Our divergence time analyses recovered a late Carboniferous origin of Coleoptera, a late Palaeozoic origin of all modern beetle suborders and a Triassic–Jurassic origin of most extant families, while fundamental divergences within beetle phylogeny did not coincide with the hypothesis of a Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution.

The fossils once assigned to Raractocetus Kurosawa from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic amber deposits differ from extant Raractocetus in the longer elytra, the more strongly projecting metacoxae, and the hind wing with vein 2A forked. Thus, these fossils should be removed from Raractocetus. Cretoquadratus engeli Chen from Kachin amber appears to be conspecific with R. fossilis Yamamoto. As a result, R. fossilis and R. extinctus Yamamoto from Kachin amber, R. balticus Yamamoto from Baltic amber, and R. sverlilo Nazarenko, Perkovsky & Yamamoto from Rovno amber are transferred to Cretoquadratus Chen, as C. fossilis (Yamamoto) comb. nov., C. extinctus (Yamamoto) comb. nov., C. balticus (Yamamoto) comb. nov., and C. sverlilo (Nazarenko, Perkovsky & Yamamoto) comb. nov., and C. engeli syn. nov. is suggested to be a junior synonym of C. fossilis.

A list of the 646 described species of Staphylinidae in Korea is presented. The list is in taxonomic sequence by subfamily, tribe, and genus and includes 215 genera in 55 tribes and 18 subfamilies. We provide the page reference of the original description of every species and genus listed, of many synonyms, and of all the Korean records. The list provides distribution of all the species by country (and for the larger countries, by province or state). A brief taxonomic history of the Korean Staphylinidae is presented. A complete bibliography is provided.

The megadiverse subfamily Staphylininae traditionally belonged to the best-defined rove beetle taxa, but the advent of molecular phylogenetics in the last decade has brought turbulent changes to the group’s classification. Here, we reevaluate the internal relationships among the tribes of Staphylininae by implementing tree inference methods that suppress common sources of systematic error. In congruence with morphological data, and in contrast to some previous phylogenetic studies, we unambiguously recover Staphylininae and Paederinae as monophyletic in the traditional sense. We show that the recently proposed subfamily Platyprosopinae (Arrowinus and Platyprosopus) is a phylogenetic artefact and reinstate Arrowinus as a member of Arrowinini stat. res. and Platyprosopus as a member of Platyprosopini stat. res. We show that several recent changes to the internal classification of the subfamily are phylogenetically unjustified and systematically unnecessary. We, therefore, reestablish Platyprosopini, Staphylinini, and Xantholinini as tribes within Staphylininae (all stat. res.) and recognize Coomaniini as a tribe (stat. nov.) rather than subfamily. Consequently, the traditional ranks of the subtribes Acylophorina, Afroquediina, Amblyopinina, Antimerina, †Baltognathina, Cyrtoquediina, Erichsoniina, Hyptiomina, Indoquediina, Quediina, and Tanygnathinina are restored (all stat. res.). We review the current classification of Staphylininae and discuss sources of incongruence in multigene phylogenies.

Ant-like stone beetles (Coleoptera: Scydmaenidae) include more than 4,850 described species in about 90 genera maintained as a separate cosmopolitan family since 1815. Recent authors have hypothesised that Scydmaenidae might be rooted deep inside rove-beetles (Staphylinidae). To test this hypothesis we analysed 206 parsimoniously informative larval and adult morphological characters scored for 38 taxa. Strict consensus topologies from the shortest trees in all 12 analyses consistently placed Scydmaenidae as sister to (Steninae + Euaesthetinae) in a monophyletic Staphylinine Group (with or without Oxyporinae). The single fully resolved and most consistently supported topology maintains a monophyletic Staphylinine Group consisting of Oxyporinae + (Megalopsidiinae + (("Scydmaenidae" + (Steninae + Euaesthetinae)) + (Leptotyphlinae + (Pseudopsinae + (Paederinae + Staphylininae))))); Solierius lacks larval data and is ambiguously placed within the Group. Eight analyses of variably aligned 18S rDNA data for 93 members of Staphylinoidea under parsimony, neighbour-joining and Bayesian approaches were markedly inconsistent, although partly congruent with the Scydmaenidae + (Steninae + Euaesthetinae) hypothesis. Our results strongly suggest that ant-like stone beetles do not form an independent family, but are morphologically modified members of Staphylinidae and, consequently, should be treated as a 32nd recent subfamily within the megadiverse Staphylinidae sensu latissimo. Formal taxonomic acts are: Scydmaeninae Leach, 1815, status novus (= Scydmaenidae Leach, 1815); Scydmaenitae Leach, 1815, status novus (= Scydmaeninae Leach, 1815); Mastigitae Fleming, 1821, status novus (= Mastiginae Fleming, 1821); Hapsomelitae Poinar & Brown, 2004, status novus (= Hapsomelinae Poinar & Brown, 2004). The family Staphylinidae sensu latissimo becomes the largest in Coleoptera and in the whole of the Animal Kingdom, with 55,440 described species (extant plus extinct), thus surpassing Curculionidae with an estimated 51,000 described species.