Lydomorphus Fairmaire, 1882

Bologna, Marco A., Amore, Valentina & Pitzalis, Monica, 2018, Meloidae of Namibia (Coleoptera): taxonomy and faunistics with biogeographic and ecological notes, Zootaxa 4373 (1), pp. 1-141 : 23

Genus Lydomorphus Fairmaire, 1882

This genus was revised by Kaszab (1955a, 1978, as Cylindrothorax ), while Selander (1988a as Cylindrothorax ) summarized the distribution of all species. Bologna & Aloisi (1992) described the first instar larva, evidenced the priority of the name Lydomorphus over Cylindrothorax and improved the infrageneric classification by describing two new subgenera. We accept here, with few exceptions, the groups of species proposed by Kaszab (1955a) and the subgenera described by Bologna & Aloisi (1992). Most of the species of this genus, including the Namibian ones, are nocturnal or active also during the day.

Recent research, based on adult ( Bologna & Pinto 2002) and larval morphology (Bologna et al. in preparation), and on molecular data (Pitzalis et et al. in preparation), pointed out the polyphyly of Lydomorphus . Actually, some Palaeotropical and Saharan species belong to an undescribed genus (Pitzalis et al. in preparation); one northern Namibian species ( L. optatus ) and another one from Namaqualand and Karoo ( L. mesembryanthemi ) are referable to two new genera described below ( Dilatilydus and Desertilydus ).