Haptomerus Faust, 1889

Haptomerus Faust 1889: 142; Marshall 1908: 23; Hustache 1921: 42; Marshall 1958a: 124; Marshall 1958b: 712; Hoffmann 1959: 164; Voss 1960: 13; Osella & Lodos 1979: 76; Alonso-Zarazaga 1983: 311; Oberprieler 1995: 166; Osella et al. 1998: 231; Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal 1999: 163; Borovec 2013: 293.

Type species, by original designation: Myorhinus lepidus Brullé, 1832 .

Haptomerus is one of few genera of Myorhinini with species in the Mediterranean subregion as well as in the Afrotropical region (Osella et al. 1998). Two species are known from southern Europe: H. lepidus (Brullé, 1832) from Greece and Italy (Borovec 2013) and one yet undescribed species from Portugal (Borovec, unpublished data). Haptomerus is much more speciose in the Afrotropical region, encompassing eight species: H. aeneus Hustache, 1921 (Kenya), H. affinis Voss, 1960 (South Africa: North West), H. angolanus Marshall, 1958 (Angola), H. brevitarsis Voss, 1962 (Democratic Republic of Congo), H. confusus Marshall, 1958 (Cameroon), H. limis (Gyllenhal, 1836) (South Africa: Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State), H. mashunus Marshall, 1908 (Zimbabwe) and H. natalis Marshall, 1908 (South Africa: KwaZulu-Natal).

Faust (1889) originally described the genus in the tribe Tanyrhynchini Schoenherr, 1826, but Oberprieler (1995) later transferred it to Myorhinini, specifically to the Myorhinus -group of genera, and it was also listed in this tribe by Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal (1999) and Borovec (2013).