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Summary The phylogenetic relationships among world genera of Coenosiini (Diptera: Muscidae: Coenosiinae) were investigated using parsimony. The analysis involved forty‐six ingroup terminal taxa, representing 100% of the genera currently assigned to this tribe, three outgroups and sixty‐seven adult male and female morphological characters. The monophyly of Coenosiini is confirmed by the position of the three katepisternal bristles, equidistant from each other and placed at the points of an equilateral triangle. Genera Andersonosia, Agenamyia, Anthocoenosia, Drepanocnemis, Pachyceramyia and Rhabdotoptera are removed from Coenosiini and temporarily placed in Limnophorini. The other genera fall into two groups: the Lispocephala‐group, comprised of genera with mainly Old World species and the Nearctic genus Pentacricia; and the Coenosia‐group, with the highest level of generic diversity in South America. Each group is defined by synapomorphies of its constituent genera: Lispocephala‐group by the presence of a posteroventral apical seta on the hind tibia, the presence of two arms in male sternite 6 (not forming a ring) and the short or very short female ovipositor; the Coenosia‐group by the presence of a developed epiproct and narrow sternites 6 and 7 of the female ovipositor. The following new generic synonymies are proposed (junior synonyms in parentheses): Lispocephala Pokorny (=Pectiniseta Stein), Coenosia Meigen (=Tenuicosta Stein; Dexiopsis Pokorny), Neodexiopsis Malloch (=Haroldopsis Albuquerque), Pilispina Albuquerque (=Levallonia Albuquerque; Noelia Albuquerque; Parvomusca Medeiros; Cholomyioides Albuquerque), Apsil Malloch (=Raymondomyia Malloch), Stomopogon Malloch (=Angolia Malloch; Angolina Pont) and Pygophora Schiner (=Chouicoenosia Cui & Xue).

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Philornis Meinert, 1890 (Diptera: Muscidae) is a genus of Neotropical dipterans that parasitise birds. The currently used external morphological characters to distinguish between species within this genus present some limitations. We used the second internal transcribed spacer region (ITS2) of the rRNA gene as a molecular marker to differentiate adult specimens of Philornis identified morphologically as Philornis torquans and Philornis seguyi from different localities. Specimens identified as P. seguyi from Magdalena (Buenos Aires Province) showed an ITS2 sequence different from that for P. torquans, whereas all other specimens of P. seguyi had sequences identical to those for P. torquans. These findings do not necessarily confirm that specimens from Magdalena indeed belong to P. seguyi, nor that P. seguyi is a valid species. Instead, they alert us about the potential for species misidentification when using morphological characters alone. The use of molecular approaches to aid the identification of Philornis spp. will shed light on the systematics of this group. P. torquans is reported for the first time in Mendoza Province and Uruguay.