78 (2): 287 – 308 2020 © Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, 2020. Phylogeny and Systematics of Wood-Degrading Neotro- pical Bess Beetles (Coleoptera: Passalidae: Passalinae) Cristian Fernando Beza-Beza*, 1, 2, Larry Jiménez-Ferbans 3 & Duane D. McKenna 1, 2 1 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA; Cristian Fernando Beza-Beza * [cfbeza@memphis. edu]; Duane D. McKenna [
[email protected]] — 2 Center for Biodiversity Research, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA; Cristian Fernando Beza-Beza * [
[email protected]]; Duane D. McKenna [
[email protected]] — 3 Facultad de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad del Magdalena, Santa Marta 470004, Colombia; Larry Jiménez-Ferbans [
[email protected]] — * Corres ponding author Accepted on August 12, 2020. Published online at www.senckenberg.de/arthropod-systematics on September 30, 2020. Editors in charge: Sergio Pérez-González & Mónica M. Solórzano-Kraemer Abstract. Passalidae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) are saproxylophagous beetles that live and feed inside decaying wood. Passalid diversity and biogeography are relatively well-established at the tribal-level, particularly in the New World. However, a robust phylogenetic frame- work to test the current taxonomic status of the generic groups in the family is lacking. In the New World, Passalidae is represented by the tribes Passalini and Proculini. To test the monophyly of Proculini and Passalini and reconstruct relationships among the New World genera, we used DNA sequences from three genes along with data from 57 morphological characters. Our taxon sampling included 25 of the 26 genera of New World Passalidae across their entire geographic range (The United States of America to Argentina). We recovered Proculini and Passalini as reciprocally monophyletic sister groups.