Antimerina, BRUNKE, ZYLA & SOLODOVNIKOV, 2019

Antimerina View in CoL

The sister of Antimerus has never been recovered consistently in previous analyses ( Solodovnikov, 2006; Brunke & Solodovnikov, 2013; Brunke et al., 2016; Chani-Posse et al., 2018; Schillhammer & Brunke, 2018), although this genus was always outside the major Northern Hemisphere clade. For the first time, based on morphological and molecular data, Schillhammer & Brunke (2018) resolved a sister group for the genus with high support. Their topology suggested a sistergroup relationship with the Northern Hemisphere clade, which was supported morphologically by the presence of peg setae on the paramere in both clades. In the present analysis, the HAT clade + Northern Hemisphere clade or the Northern Hemisphere clade alone cannot be rejected as potential sister groups, because the node in question is weakly supported (PP = 0.70). Molecular data were available thus far for only one species of Antimerus , and the addition of further species might resolve its sister group, which is important for reconstructing the biogeographical history of Staphylinini . Regardless of the true sister of Antimerus , this taxon is consistently isolated in all previously recovered topologies and is morphologically incongruent with all existing higher taxa. Therefore, we suggest that a separate subtribe is needed for this distinct lineage of Staphylinini (see Systematic Palaeontology). We also confirm the results of Brunke & Solodovnikov (2013), who recovered a monophyletic Antimerus , albeit with different taxa.