Staphylininae is the third largest subfamily of the enormous family Staphylinidae. Monophyly of Staphylininae and its sister relationship to the subfamily Paederinae have been broadly accepted according to both conventional morphology- and molecular-based phylogenies until the last three years. Recent molecular phylogenies rejected monophyly of Staphylininae and regarded Paederinae as a clade within it. This paper re-evaluates the recent molecular work, aiming to clarify the relationship between Staphylininae and Paederinae and resolve intertribal relationships within Staphylininae. Based on a new six-gene data set (5707 bp) for 92 taxa including Oxyporinae (outgroup), representatives of Paederinae, and members of all extant tribes of Staphylininae from published DNA data in GenBank, we generated a well-resolved phylogeny of Staphylininae with all deep nodes (intertribal relationships) strongly supported, and reassert the hypothesis that Staphylininae is monophyletic and indeed the sister group to Paederinae using both Bayesian and maximum likelihood inference. Additionally, our study is a case-study to show that both outgroup selection and completeness of nucleotide data can influence the outcome of a molecular phylogeny. With an increasing number of staphylinid fossils being discovered, the robust phylogeny of Staphylininae inferred by our research will provide a good framework for understanding the early evolution of this group.

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A new genus and species, Pengzhongiella daicongchaoi, of the subtribe Batrisina (Batrisitae: Batrisini) is described from the Gaoligong Mountains, Yunnan, Southwest China. Adults were collected in a colony of Odontomachus monticola, and presented reduction of certain external characters and elongate appendages relating to myrmecophily. Description and illustrations of the habitus and major diagnostic features of the new taxon are provided; a brief discussion of its taxonomic placement is included. The new species also represents the first record of a Pselaphinae in association with an Odontomachus ant.

Fossil evidence of the ant-like stone beetle tribe Scydmaenini is extremely rare. To date, only one genus and species, †Kuafu borealis Yin, Cai and Huang, has been reported from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, which was treated as a stem group based on the rounded anterior margins of the scapes. Here we describe the second fossil species, †Scydmaenus minor Yin and Cai, sp. nov., from Burmese amber. The new species possesses a majority of characters typical of the extant genus Scydmaenus, and can be readily characterized by the minute body size, a unique form of the pronotum, and probably plesiomorphic short metatrochanters. Due to the current inadequate infrageneric classification of Scydmaenus, we place the new species as a stem-group taxon incertae sedis within Scydmaenus.