Phylogeny

The tribe Cyclocephalini has never been closely looked at in a phylogenetic way. This image is part of a preliminary, unpublished molecular phylogenetic analysis done by Team Scarab at the University of Nebraska State Museum. They were looking at the family Scarabaeidae as a whole. Here I have cut out the section that includes Cyclocephalines. I don't know how many of you know much about phylogeny, but think of it as a kind of family tree. The closer the branches of two organisms, the more closely they are related, evolutionarily speaking.

On the upper branch, the genera Tomarus, Euetheola, and Oxygrilius are not part of the tribe Cyclocephalini, but as you can see, they are intermixed with several genera that are. The tree as a whole is a mess (see how many places the genus Cyclocephala shows up). That is why there is great need for a closer and more proper phylogenetic study