Phylogeny of the neotropical rove beetle genus Plociopterus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), with special reference to evolution of secondary sexual characters

The family Staphylinidae is a hyperdiverse group of Coleoptera with over 46,000 species currently recognized (Newton et al. 2000) and nearly 400 species described per year. Inspite of the large amount of descriptive work being accomplished, the phylogenetic relationships of higher taxa, as well as those of species and genera within Staphylinidae remain poorly known, and very few studies (Caterino et al. 2005, Maus et al. 2001) have used molecular characters to build a phylogeny of Staphylinidae.; A particularly problematic tribe of Staphylinidae, in terms of interrelationships and subtribal limits, is Staphylinini. This tribe contains some of the largest and most colorful staphylinids but suprizingly, has not yet been the focus of a comprehensive study of its functional morphology or phylogeny, and many of its subtribes are most certainly not monophyletic. Xanthopygina is one of the subtribes of Staphylinini that is most likely not monophyletic as currently defined; most of its genera are strictly neotropical but it currently contains controversial genera in the Ethiopian, Oriental, Palearctic, and Australian regions.; Plociopterus is a genus of Xanthopygina which occurs throughout the lowland neotropics from Bolivia to Mexico. This group exhibits dramatic modifications of male secondary sexual characters. Systematic studies on Plociopterus have included only species descriptions, with no attempts to test monophyly or resolve phylogenetic relationships among its members.; In this study I perform phylogenetic analyses using mitochondrial DNA sequence data to (1) test the monophyly of Plociopterus, (2) examine the relationships within this genus, and (3) examine the relationships within Staphylinini by including other taxa within Xanthopygina, as well as members of other subtribes.