Mylabrini

Meena, A. K., Nagar, Rajendra, Chhangani, Gaurang & Swaminathan, R., 2023, Record of the blister beetle, Croscherichia goryi (Marseul, 1870) (Coleoptera: Meloidae) from Rajasthan, India, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 123 (1), pp. 45-50 : 46

Tribe Mylabrini

Taxonomic literature on the Mylabrini indicates that it probably originated in Africa, and might have dispersed in both Southern Palaearctic and Oriental regions with significant post-Eocene radiations. This tribe is distinguishable amongst the Meloidae , subfamily Meloinae , by the combination of the following features: labrum not longitudinally furrowed or carinate; maxillary galeae not modified; antennal socket close to eye, placed above frontal suture, antennomeres variable in number (seven to eleven) and distinctly widened to apex (except in the genus Lydoceras Marseul, 1870 and in a few species of the genus Hycleus Latreille, 1817 ); claws not fringed on ventral blade; elytra red–brown with maculae or fasciae, rarely unicolorous; mesosternum with a distinctly modified anterior area or at least with a smooth and glabrous area whose surface is distinct from that of the remaining area. The anatomy of the mesosternum and mesepisterna (e. g., Mylabris and Croscherichia ) shows that the mesepisterna are unmodified anteriorly, which is important for identification of Mylabrini , a strictly Old world group, as explained and illustrated in Pardo Alcaide (1952, 1954 a, 1955, 1958a) and Bologna (1991a). These structures are extremely important for separating the genera and species of this tribe, the most speciose of the family. The traditional classification of this tribe was rearranged by Pardo Alcaide (1950, 1952, 1959, 1968), and his phylogenetic proposals have been supported recently by studies on adult and larval morphology, as reviewed by Bologna (1991). Morphological and molecular studies of Meloidae ( Bologna, 1991a; Pinto & Bologna, 1999, 2002 Bologna & Pinto, 2001, 2002; Bologna et al., 2008b) confirm the monophyly of the tribe Mylabrini . Revisions of the following Mylabrinae genera have been published and should be consulted: Croscherichia Pardo

Alcaide ( Bologna and Coco, 1991), Mimesthes Marseul ( Bologna, 2000) , Actenodia Laporte de Castelnau ( Bologna et al., 2008a) , Lydoceras Marseul ( Bologna et al., 2011) , Pseudabris Fairmaire ( Pan et al., 2013) .