Lampyrinae

Taxobox
name = Lampyrinae

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image_width = 240px
image_caption = Male adult of "Lampyris noctiluca"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta

ordo = Coleoptera

superfamilia = Elateroidea
familia = Lampyridae
subfamilia = Lampyrinae
subfamilia_authority = Latreille, 1817Verify source|date=September 2007
subdivision_ranks = Tribes
subdivision =
Cratomorphini (disputed)

Lamprocerini

Lampyrini

Photinini (paraphyletic?)
and see text.
synonyms =Amydetinae
Psilocladinae (disputed)

The Lampyrinae are a large subfamily of fireflies (Lampyridae). The exact delimitation, and the internal systematics, are a matter of debate; for long this group was used as a "wastebin taxon" to hold any fireflies with insufficiently resolved relationships. Regardless, they are very diverse even as a good monophyletic group, containing flashing and continuous-glow fireflies from the Holarctic and some tropical forms too. The ancestral Lampyrinae probably had no or very primitive light signals; in any case several modern lineages have returned to the pheromone communication of their ancestors independently it seems.Stanger-Hall "et al." (2007)]

The Cyphonocerinae were once contained herein but they are well distinct. The Psilocladinae on the other hand seem to be a "de facto" junior synonym of the tribe Photinini, but this requires further study. The Amydetinae are a former subfamily that is nowadays largely but not completely contained herein too. The tribe Pleotomini seems to be a specialized lineage of Lampyrini and is here included therein, while the Photinini seem to comprise two rather distinct lineages, one of which might warrant separation as tribe Phosphaenini. Meanwhile, the Cratomorphini could just be an assemblage of unrelated ancient Lampyrinae and altogether invalid as a tribe.

With these changes and uncertainties, several genera are of very badly resolved position in this group; for example:
* "Amydetes"
* "Lamprigera"
* "Lucidina" (Photinini/Phosphaenini?) The genus "Pristolycus" is better tentatively included in the Luciolinae. [Stanger-Hall "et al." (2007), Fu & Ballantyne (2008)]

Footnotes

References

* (2008): Taxonomy and behaviour of lucioline fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae: Luciolinae) with redefinition and new species of "Pygoluciola" Wittmer from mainland China and review of "Luciola" LaPorte. "Zootaxa" 1733: 1–44. [http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2008/f/z01733p044f.pdf PDF abstract]
* (2007): Phylogeny of North American fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae): Implications for the evolution of light signals. "Mol. Phylogenet. Evol." 45(1): 33-49. doi|10.1016/j.ympev.2007.05.013 (HTML abstract)