Diestota Mulsant & Rey 1870

Genus Diestota Mulsant & Rey, 1870 [Japanese name: Kawari-hanekakushi-zoku] Diestota Mulsant & Rey, 1870: 194 (original description; type species: Bolitochara mayeti Mulsant & Rey, 1870 (= Diestota testacea (Kraatz, 1859)), fixed by monotypy). Ousilusa Cameron, 1920: 234 (original description; type species: Ousilusa myrmicobia Cameron, 1920); Pace, 2000: 131 (synonymized with Diestota). Prosilusa Cameron, 1920: 237 (original description; type species: Prosilusa rufa Cameron, 1920 (= Diestota testacea (Kraatz, 1859)); Cameron, 1936: 3 (synonymized with Diestota). Hypselusa Bernhauer, 1931: 592 (original description; type species: Hypselusa scotti Bernhauer, 1931); Pace, 1986: 108 (synonymized with Diestota). Remarks. Among the genera recognized within Diestotini, the genus Diestota shares similarities with Parasilusa Bernhauer, 1908 and Tachiona Sharp, 1883 particularly in having a broad neck and widely separated mesocoxal cavities. Parasilusa is distinguished from Diestota by having the anterior margin of the pronotum longer than the posterior margin (Pace 2008). Tachiona differs from Diestota in having a flat body with a wide head and pronotum, and a clypeal margin that is slightly to markedly emarginate (Ashe & Wheeler 1988). Aleomallus Rainey & Ivie, 2023 is also described to have widely separated mesocoxal cavities (Rainey & Ivie 2023). However, the photograph of the ventral habitus (Rainey & Ivie 2023: fig. 1b) suggests that this description is probably inaccurate, as the mesocoxal cavities are not separated by the meso- and metaventrite processes. While the attempt to characterize Aleomallus is largely based on its body shape, the mouthparts and thoracic structures are likely crucial for distinguishing it from other genera. Pace (1986) provided the key to subgenera of the genus Diestota. Among the subgenera in this key, Parasilusa is now considered a genus (e.g., Asenjo et al. 2019; Newton 2025). Aphaenoglossa Peyerimhoff, 1937, currently treated as a subgenus of Diestota, is not included in the key, although it was regarded as a subgenus of Diestota at the time of Smetana (2004).