Cleroidea Latreille, 1802

Kolibáč, Jiří & Huang, Diying, 2019, New cleroid beetles from the Middle-Late Jurassic of China, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 64 (1), pp. 143-155 : 145

Superfamily Cleroidea Latreille, 1802

Remarks.—The melyrid “stock” is a term introduced by Majer (1994a) for the cleroid families Acanthocnemidae , Mauroniscidae , Prionoceridae , Dasytidae , Melyridae , Malachiidae , and Attalomimidae .Bocakova et al. (2011) presented a molecular phylogenetic analysis of the lineage, established the monophyletic Rhadalidae , and confirmed Dasytidae , Malachiidae , Melyridae , Prionoceridae , and Mauroniscidae as separate cleroid families. Recently, the comprehensive phylogeny of Cleroidea based on 4-gene analyses ( Gimmel et al. 2019) has supported Rhadalidae and Mauroniscidae as the most basal clades of the melyrid lineage, a diversification of which was followed by separation of Prionoceridae and Melyridae sensu lato (incl. Dasytinae and Malachiinae). On the other hand, morphologically-based modern phylogenies (i.e., Lawrence et al. 2011), as summarized by Bouchard et al. (2011), recognise Rhadalinae, Dasytinae, and Malachiinae as subfamilies within Melyridae sensu lato. Two further related families, Attalomimidae and Gietellidae , established by Majer (1994a, b) were generally included in Malachiidae and Dasytidae respectively, although Gietella Constantin and Menier, 1987 has been found as a derived apterous group of Rhadalidae ( Gimmel et al. 2019). Crowson (1960, 1964), Lawrence and Newton (1982), and Majer (1994a) proposed closer relationships among Acanthocnemidae , Phycosecidae , Prionoceridae , and Melyridae sensu lato. Recent molecular phylogenies of beetles (Bocak et al. 2014; McKenna et al. 2015) classify Acanthocnemidae as one of basal groups of all Cleroidea , confirm a position for Phycosecidae at the very base of the melyrid lineage, and establish Prionoceridae as actually part of the lineage (cf. Majer 1987 who proposed a relation of Prionoceridae with Cleridae ). Thus, the melyrid lineage includes the families Phycosecidae , Rhadalidae , Mauroniscidae , Prionoceridae , Melyridae , Dasytidae , and Malachiidae (see Crowson 1964; Peacock 1987; Majer 1994a, 1995, 2002; Bocakova et al. 2011; Bocak et al. 2014; McKenna et al. 2015). This concept is applied throughout this paper.