Epuraea Erichson, 1843

Jelínek, Josef, Leschen, Richard A. B. & Hájek, Jiří, 2017, Revision of Epuraea of New Zealand (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (Acta. Ent. Mus. Natl. Pragae) 57 (2), pp. 617-644 : 619

Epuraea Erichson, 1843

Epuraea Erichson, 1843: 267 . Type species Nitidula silacea Herbst, 1784 , by subsequent designation by THOMSON (1859: 68).

Epuraea species from New Zealand form two distinct groups. The first group, which includes the adventive species E. imperialis ( Reitter, 1873) and E. scutellaris ( Broun, 1880) , corresponds to the current concept of the subgenus Haptoncus Murray, 1864 . The remaining species belong to group of New Zealand endemic species and share the following characteristics: oval to oblong oval, moderately convex body; slender antennae and legs; terminal labial palpomere truncate apically; antennal furrows straight, converging posteriad, with outer margin obsolete to indistinct; prosternal process between procoxae narrow and rather strongly longitudinally convex, behind them depressed, strongly dilated with regularly arcuate apex; mesoventrite transversely vaulted, prepectus long, delimited by a fine posterior edge or line broadly interrupted in middle; metaventrite moderately transversely convex with fine, non-impressed discrimen; mesocoxal lines closely bordering mesocoxal cavities, with absent recurrent outer parts; axillary spaces not developed; posterior intercoxal margin arcuately emarginate; outer subapical angle of protibia rounded, all tibiae simple in both sexes; metatarsomeres not bilobed, narrow; tarsal claws simple.

Because the above mentioned characters are likely plesiomorphies, and because the genus Epuraea is now an array of many subgenera with unresolved phylogenetic relationships, some of them most probably paraphyletic, we avoid placing the New Zealand species into the present subgeneric classification.