Subgenus Phaonius Reichardt, 1941

Phaonius Reichardt, 1941: 177, 188. Type species: Saprinus pharao Marseul, 1855, original designation.

Phaonius: KRYZHANOVSKIJ & REICHARDT (1976): 126, 135; MAZUR & KASZAB (1980): 26; MAZUR (1984): 44; MAZUR (1997): 218; SECQ & SECQ (1997a): 10; YÉLAMOS (2002): 256, 257; MAZUR (2004): 97.

Diagnosis. Body more rectangular shaped than in subgenus Saprinus, antennal club ventrally with four slit-like pits and dorsally with two slit-like pits roughly corresponding to sutures between antennomeres IX–XI; its surface furnished only with sparse erect long sensilla except for apical sensory area that is covered with dense short sensilla; prosternal process rather narrow, convex, with short sparse setae, propygidium long. Apical half of spiculum gastrale conspicuously dilated. The rest as with subgenus Saprinus .

Biology. Species of this subgenus are found on carcasses of mammals, birds, reptiles etc. (Lackner, pers. observ.).

Distribution. This subgenus contains three species distributed in the Afrotropical and Palaearctic Regions and one species occurring in Australia. Saprinus (Phaonius) pharao is distributed in Southern Europe (reaching its northernmost distribution limit in southern Slovakia), North Africa as far south as Senegal, Canary Islands, Asia Minor, South Russia, Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, West China and Mongolia (MAZUR 1997). Two species with Afrotropical distribution, S. (P.) erichsoni Marseul, 1855 and S. (P.) fulgidicollis Marseul, 1855 are spread in Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius and Somalia (MAZUR 1997). Saprinus (P.) viridipennis Lewis, 1901 is known only from Australia.

Species examined. Saprinus (Phaonius) pharao Marseul, 1855 .