Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 98. (Budapest 2006)

Makranczy, Gy.: Systematics and phylogenetic relationships of the genera in the Carpelimus group (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Oxytelinae)

group of oxyteline genera {Deleaster and the Coprophilus group) had an intermediate state: reduced second sternite with a short, immobile membranous connection to the third sternite. As it was stated in the introduction, the reexamination of the phylogeny of the Carpelimus group taxa was necessitated by the newly discovered characters and their expected influence on the classification of the involved genera. I anticipate that this work will bring a new approach to the study of these difficult, but character-rich beetles, and solves some problems that existed with outdated keys, old species descriptions, very regional revisions and many misidentified specimens in collections. In most cases good quality genital preparations unquestionably place taxa in the genera and species groups, and in most cases readily identify species. Such ease of identification is rather unique in any larger assemblage of staphylinids. Treatment of sub generic classification A special part of this study must deal with the problem of subgenera and the subgeneric classification in oxytelines in general. For groups comprising hundreds of species, but even for smaller ones, the human mind searches for ways of subdivision. For centuries, the naming of subgenera was extremely popular and many such names were made available. In most instances, authors picked one or two characters that seemed distinctive and united all the species that possessed these particular character states under a newly given name. The drawbacks of such action are obvious: (1) such classification would not be based on phylogeny, (2) taxa that the author has not yet examined remained unplaced, (3) new taxa with intermediate character states cannot be placed in such a system, and (4) the variability of characters is poorly assessed (for example, in several instances the female of a species should go to one subgenus and the male to another). Ill-defined subgenera cause huge problems in the classification of the larger genera, Carpelimus, Thinodromus and Bledius are the three most important ones. The case with Bledius is discussed in detail by HERMAN (1986) and it illustrates problems with the others as well. In order to maintain the monophyly of named groups, either an unreasonable number of subgeneric names must be created, or the number of subgenera must be reduced. So a few very distinctive species with extreme characteristics are placed in the majority of the named groups, while the bulk of the species are placed together in one or two subgenera, so the goal of convenient subdivision is not met. HERMAN ( 1986) in the case of Bledius expressed his preference for a purely species group classification. For the aforementioned reasons, I take the same approach. The goal is to create a system where the yet undescribed species can be