Seirinae Yosii, 1961 is the third largest subfamily of Entomobryidae (~ 1,800 spp.) with 210 nominal species. Currently Seirinae gathers two genera, Seira Lubbock, 1870 with wide distribution holding 205 species, and Tyrannoseira Bellini and Zeppelini, 2011 with 5 endemic species from Brazilian northeastern region. In addition to these, Lepidocyrtinus Börner, 1903, Ctenocyrtinus Arlé, 1959 and Austroseira Yoshii and Suhardjono, 1992 are other taxa currently considered as junior synonyms of Seira, which generic or subgeneric validity has been discussed due to theirs doubtful diagnostic characters for current taxonomy. Cladistic studies with Seirinae are limited to analyze less than 2% of the described species, all from Seira, while the other genera were never being used in phylogenetic analyzes. Here we present a cladistic analysis of Seirinae based on 285 morphological characters encoded from 120 terminals of Entomobryidae (68 nominal), of which 108 are represented by Seirinae species. In addition, the three main taxa of Seirinae are taxonomically studied and new diagnoses are proposed. Phylogenetic analyses
recovered the following proposal for the four subfamilies of Entomobryidae:
Heteromurinae + (Lepidocyrtinae + (Entomobryinae + Seirinae)). Seirinae was recovered based on six synapomorphies, three of which were unknown until now, and all of them are incorporated here as diagnostic. The generic relations recovered in our hypothesis were: Lepidocyrtinus + (Austroseira + (Seira s. str. + Seira), and consequently Lepidocyrtinusini trib. nov. was proposed to house 28 species of Lepidocyrtinus; and Seirini for the other taxa, including Tyrannoseira, now a subgroup of Seira. New diagnoses for Seira, Tyrannoseira and Lepidocyrtinus are proposed, including specific dorsal chaetotaxy patterns for each taxon. In total, 19 Seirinae species are reviewed and redescribed distributed in: Seira (5 spp.), Tyrannoseira (5 spp.) and Lepidocyrtinus (9 spp.), based on primary and secondary types, as well as designated neotypes whenever necessary. In addition, 20 new species are described, 6 of Seira and 14 of Lepidocyrtinus from South Africa (continental and from Madagascar), Spain and Brazil. Seirinae now gathers three valid genera (Austroseira, Seira and Lepidocyrtinus) that together add up to 231 nominal species, of which 32% have been phylogenetically tested.
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