Phylogenetic Analysis of the Cetonini of the New World (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoninae)

The American genera of Cetoniini (Coleoptera: Cetoniinae) are analyzed. Fifty-eight morphological characters of seventy two taxa, including Cetoniini from the entire world and other representative tribes of Cetoniinae, were included in a phylogenetic analysis and studied under the parsimony criterion. The Cetoniini, a tribe including species from all continents, is monophyletic and appears supported by two homoplastic characters: the elytra-thorax articulation in a glove-like shape and the mesosternal process basally compressed and apically expanded in shape. No clade supporting a hypothesis of common ancestry for the American species was found. Of the traditionally defined genera in the American continents only Chlorixanthe was monophyletic and positioned basal to the Cetoniini clade. Stephanucha and Euphoriopsis are paraphyletic with respect to Euphoria and are transferred to this genus. Euphoria holochrolis is resurrected, considered a valid species and sister to the fulgida group. Euphoria represents a poorly defined polyphyletic genus with a great degree of variability, with some species closer to European and African lineages rather than those within Euphoria