Morphology is not always a good indicator of biological diversity, aswe illustrate in Asian species classified under Cercyon, a genus of terrestrial water scavenger beetles. We describe Asiacyon gen. nov., which is strongly supported by DNA data, has limited distribution and unique habitat preferences, yet it highly resembles other unrelated ʻCercyonʼ. The species diversity of this lineage was under-estimated: we describe 11 new species from China. We argue that ‘Cercyon’ should be divided into DNA-based natural genera despite their morphological similarity. (Image credit: Martin Fikáček.)

Pollen beetles of the genus Teucriogethes (Meligethinae) are strictly associated with the flowers of germanders, Teucrium (Lamiaceae). We analysed and described a new species, Teucriogethes huangae, recently discovered in Central China, associated as larvae with a strongly isolated member of Teucrium, T. ornatum. The new species occupies an isolated position inside Teucriogethes revealed by combining both morphological and molecular analyses, as well as bionomical data. This paper provides a significant contribution to many important evolutionary and taxonomical aspects of Teucriogethes. (Image credit: Meike Liu, Simone Sabatelli and Paolo Audisio.)

We sampled ~75% of Apatelodidae species from all valid genera and combined morphological and molecular data to test monophyly of its genera. Our findings demonstrate that most Apatelodidae genera, as currently understood, are not monophyletic and revealed that groups of species with similar characters may constitute valid genera. We propose a new genus-level classification for Apatelodidae and include data on its natural history and geographical distribution. (Image credit: Guilherme Fischer.)

Boniniidae is a family of marine polyclad flatworms harbouring nine named species distributed worldwide. We describe a new boniniid species, Boninia panamensis from the Pacific coasts of Panama based on morphological and molecular data. We also report Boninia cf. uru from Hawai’i and Boninia oaxaquensis from Panama along with morphological descriptions. In addition, we discuss synapomorphic traits and possible speciation pathways in this genus based on the reconstructed molecular phylogenetic results using 18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, 16S rDNA and COI. (Photograph by Marco Curini-Galletti.)