The soft-bodied click-beetle genus Malacogaster Bassi, 1834 from the Mediterranean region has never been taxonomically revised to date. Information on its morphology, intra- and interspecific variability, systematics and distribution is fragmented and most species have not been properly studied since their description. Therefore, in this study we summarize all available information on the genus Malacogaster. Altogether, we recognize 10 valid species from the area including the Canary Islands, Iberian Peninsula, Balearic Islands, northern coast of Africa, Sardinia, and Sicily. Malacogaster ruficollis Dodero, 1925, stat. nov., which was originally described as a variety of M. bassii Lucas, 1870 and later synonymized with it, is considered a separate species. Malacogaster parallelocollis Reitter, 1894, syn. nov. and M. olcesei var. reductus Pic, 1951, syn. nov. are synonymized with M. maculiventris Reitter, 1894. Malacogaster notativentris Pic, 1951, syn. nov. and M. olcesei Pic, 1951, syn. nov. are synonymized with M. passerinii Bassi, 1834. Lectotypes are designated for M. maculiventris Reitter, 1894, M. nigripes heydeni Reitter, 1894, M. parallelocollis Reitter, 1894, M. thoracica Redtenbacher, 1858, M. olcesei Pic, 1951, and M. rubripes Peyerimhoff, 1949 to fix their identity.

• Klíčová slova
• Africa, Cantharoidea, Coleoptera, Elateroidea, Italy, Spain, identification key, neoteny, systematics,
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

Elateridae is a taxon with very unstable classification and a number of conflicting phylogenetic hypotheses have been based on morphology and molecular data. We assembled eight complete mitogenomes for seven elaterid subfamilies and merged these taxa with an additional 22 elaterids and an outgroup. The structure of the newly produced mitogenomes showed a very similar arrangement with regard to all earlier published mitogenomes for the Elateridae. The maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses indicated that Hapatesus Candèze, 1863, is a sister of Parablacinae and Pityobiinae. Therefore, Hapatesinae, a new subfamily, is proposed for the Australian genera Hapatesus (21 spp.) and Toorongus Neboiss, 1957 (4 spp.). Parablacinae, Pityobiinae, and Hapatesinae have a putative Gondwanan origin as the constituent genera are known from the Australian region (9 genera) and Neotropical region (Tibionema Solier, 1851), and only Pityobius LeConte, 1853, occurs in the Nearctic region. Another putative Gondwanan lineage, the Afrotropical Morostomatinae, forms either a serial paraphylum with the clade of Parablacinae, Pityobiinae, and Hapatesinae or is rooted in a more terminal position, but always as an independent lineage. An Eudicronychinae lineage was either recovered as a sister to Melanotini or as a deep split inside Elaterinae and we herein transfer the group to Elaterinae as Eudicronychini, a new status. The mitochondrial genomes provide a sufficient signal for the placement of most lineages, but the deep bipartitions need to be compared with phylogenomic analyses.

• Klíčová slova
• Australian region, Gondwana, mitochondrial genomes, new status, new subfamily, phylogeny, taxonomy,
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH