The phylogeny of the hydrophilid genus Sternolophus Solier, 1834 was examined in this study using 60 morphological adult characters, eight of them continuous and 52 discrete. The cladistic analysis resulted in a single most parsimonious tree with two major subclades corresponding, respectively, to species previously assigned to the subgenera Sternolophus s. str. Solier and Neosternolophus Zaitzev, although they are not re-instated. The species groups S. angolensis (Erichson, 1843) and S. solieri Castelnau, 1840 are recovered as monophyletic. The biogeography and diversification of the species of Sternolophus are briefly discussed.