Subtribe Aleocharina Fleming, 1821

Aleocharidae Fleming, 1821: 49 (type genus: Aleochara Gravenhorst, 1802) Piochardiae Fenyes, 1918: 20 (type genus: Piochardia Heyden, 1870)

Diagnosis. The subtribe is distinguished by the following characteristics: 5-5-5 tarsal formula (4-5- 5 in Tinotus Sharp, 1833) (Hanley, 2002; Klimaszewski et al., 2002); maxillary palpus 4-segmented, plus apical pseudosegment (looks 5-segmented); labial palpus 3-segmented, plus apical pseudosegment (looks 4-segmented); ligula bilobed apically, shorter than the segment I of the labial palpus; lateral projections of labial apodeme elongated (Maruyama, 2004); median lobe of the aedeagus without dorsal apodeme (Maruyama, 2004); at least some species have a reticulated velum on the paramerite of the male aedeagus (Seevers, 1978; Ashe & Maus, 1998).

Comments. This subtribe is composed of 21 genera and is distributed throughout all zoogeographic regions. The subtribe Aleocharina is easily distinguished from the other two subtribes comprised of termitophiles, namely Compactopediina Kistner, 1970, and Hodoxenina Kistner, 1970, in the tribe Aleocharini, by a rather generalized body shape (with some exceptions). Recently, however, a myrmecoid genus of the subtribe Aleocharina, Myrmecostica Maruyama, 2011, was described from Borneo (Maruyama et al., 2011).

The phylogenetic relationships within the subtribe remain uncertain. The phylogenetic concept of this subtribe is very unstable due to uncertain limits of the genus Aleochara and related taxa (Ashe & Maus, 1998). The monophyly of Aleocharina is still not established (Ashe & Maus, 1998), and no autapomorphy has been detected for it. Kanao et al. (2011) showed that Compactopediina belongs to the Tetrasticta Kraatz, 1857 genus group of Aleocharina (sensu Maruyama, 2004a) and suggested non-monophyly of Aleocharina.

In Japan, 5 genera, 6 subgenera (all subgenera belong to Aleochara), and 27 species of this subtribe have hitherto been recorded.