Abstract

Plagiotelum Solier, 1849 is a genus of Carabidae composed with two species, one from Tasmania (Australia) and another found in southern Argentina and Chile, both distributed in forest environments. New explorations and collections have allowed us to establish that more species are present in South America. Based on characters of the external morphology and shape of the aedeagus, three American species are recognized: Plagiotelum irinum (Blanchard, 1842), Plagiotelum irideum (Motschulsky, 1864) and Plagiotelum gentiliorum sp. nov. Nomenclatural problems are resolved, in addition to providing a redescription of the genus and the known South American species, including the description of a new taxon; a key for the identification of the species and illustrations of the adults and some diagnostic morphological structures are provided. The systematic position of the genus Plagiotelum is discussed, excluding it from the tribe Pterodactylanes and including it in a new subtribe, Plagiotelina nov. subtribe , within the Lebiini tribe.