Hycleus is a hyper-diverse genus of blister beetles including ~500 species widely distributed in the Old World, currently divided into three "sections" and into 45 "phenetic" species groups according to morphological characters. Recently the monophyly of Hycleus was questioned pointing out its paraphyly with respect to the genera Ceroctis and Paractenodia. In this study, we built a time-calibrated phylogenetic tree based on DNA sequence data from mitochondrial and nuclear genes obtained from 125 species, to understand the phylogenetic relationships among the species of this genus, to infer the biogeographic processes behind their diversification, and to assess their taxonomy and classification. Our results identified four main lineages one of which included the species belonging to Ceroctis and Paractenodia; therefore, both taxa are now referred to Hycleus as new synonyms. The three described sections of Hycleus resulted polyphyletic and are rejected, whereas several species groups represented well supported clades. Hycleus likely originated in Africa during the Early Miocene (~20 Mya), and subsequently spread in Europe and western Asia. Later, in the Late Miocene (~6 Mya) a Saharo-Sindian group branched off from the Palaearctic lineage, whereas the Oriental Region was colonized following a dispersal event through the Arabian Peninsula from the Afrotropical Region (~5 Mya).

中文翻译：

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系统发育，生物地理学和超多样化的水疱甲虫属Hycleus（鞘翅目：Meloidae）的系统学。

Hycleus是一种水疱甲虫的超多样性属，包括约500种在旧大陆广泛分布的甲虫，根据形态特征，目前分为三个“部分”和45个“显着”的物种组。最近，有人质疑Hycleus的单亲动物，指出其与塞罗克蒂斯属和Paractenodia属有关的属植物。在这项研究中，我们基于线粒体和从125种物种获得的核基因的DNA序列数据，建立了经过时间校准的系统发育树，以了解该属物种之间的系统发生关系，以推断其多样化背后的生物地理过程，并评估其分类和分类。我们的结果确定了四个主要谱系，其中之一包括属于Ceroctis和Paractenodia的物种。所以，这两个类别现在都称为Hycleus，是新的同义词。Hycleus的三个描述的部分导致多系并被拒绝，而几个物种组代表了良好支持的进化枝。Hycleus可能起源于中新世早期（约20 Mya），然后传播到欧洲和西亚。后来，在中新世晚期（〜6 Mya）中，一个萨哈罗-辛迪亚人集团从古北系支系分支出来，而东方地区则在从非洲地区（〜5 Mya）通过阿拉伯半岛扩散之后被殖民了。并随后在欧洲和西亚传播。后来，在中新世晚期（〜6 Mya）中，一个萨哈罗-辛迪亚人集团从古北系支系分支出来，而东方地区则在从非洲地区（〜5 Mya）通过阿拉伯半岛扩散之后被殖民了。并随后在欧洲和西亚传播。后来，在中新世晚期（〜6 Mya）中，一个萨哈罗-辛迪亚人集团从古北系分支出来，而东方地区则是在从非洲地区（〜5 Mya）通过阿拉伯半岛扩散事件之后被殖民的。