Review of Higonius Lewis, 1883, and allied genera (Insecta, Coleoptera, Brentidae)

Review of Higonius Lewis, 1883, and allied genera (Insecta, Coleoptera, Brentidae). The genera Higonius Lewis, 1883, Taphrocomister Senna, 1895, Higonodes Zimmerman, 1994, Pseudohigonius Damoiseau, 1987, and Neohigonius Goossens, 2005, are revised. Five new species are described: Higonius apicalis n. sp. from Sulawesi, H. philippinensis n. sp. from Philippines and Taiwan, H. bituberculatus n. sp. and H. myersi n. sp. from New Guinea and, at last, H. spongiosus n. sp. from Borneo. Several new synonymies are established: Higonius niassicus Senna, 1893 H. nudus Kleine, 1920; H. hirsutus Senna, 1893 = H. bilobicollis Senna, 1898 H. malayanus Mantilleri, 2007. The distribution of each species is given. Following this taxonomic revision, a cladistic phylogenetic analysis was performed on 35 morphological characters of the adults; it confirms the validity of the basal genera Pseudohigonius and Neohigonius, but shows Higonius being polyphyletic if the monotypic genera Higonodes and Taphrocomister are not included. Consequently they are downgraded at the rank of subgenera of Higonius, and a new combination is proposed: Higonius (Taphrocomister) singularis (Senna, 1895) n. comb., and Higonodes novenarius (Damoiseau, 1987) becomes Higonius (Higonodes) novenarius Damoiseau, 1987 again. Species of the genus Higonius are distributed in three subgenera: Taphrocomister (with H. apicalis n. sp., H. grouvellei, H. reconditus and H. singularis), Higonodes (with H. niassicus, H. novenarius and H. philippinensis n. sp.) and Higonius s.s. (with H. angustirostris, H. bituberculatus n. sp., H. cilo, H. crux, H. hirsutus, H. myersi n. sp., H. perpusillus, H. poweri, H. spongiosus n. sp. and H. trisulcarus). A biogeographic hypothesis is finally proposed to explain the current distribution of the three genera Pseudohigonius, Neohigonius and Higonius.