A revision of the genus Zyras (Zyras) Stephens, 1835. I. Current classifcation status and... 49 A revision of the genus Zyras (Zyras) Stephens, 1835 (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae). I. Current classification status and the redefinition of the genus Peter Hlaváč 1 , Tomáš Jászay 2 1 Na doline 14, SK-040 14 Košice, Slovakia 2 Museum of Šariš, Natural History Department, Radničné nám. 13, SK-085 01 Bardejov, Slovakia Corresponding author: Peter Hlaváč (phlavac@stonline.sk) Academic editor: Jan Klimaszewski  |  Received 25 October 2009  |  Accepted 10 November 2009  |  Published 11 December 2009 Citation: Hlaváč P, Jászay T (2009) A revision of the genus Zyras (Zyras) Stephens, 1835 (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae). I. Current classifcation status and the redefnition of the genus. Zookeys 29: 49–71. doi: 10.3897/ zookeys.29.218 Abstract Te genus Zyras is redefned and redescribed based on the study of the type species Zyras haworthi (Stephens). Illustrations of all important morphological characters are provided. Te status of the genus Zyras (s.l.) is discussed. A list of all species attributed to the subgenus Z. (Zyras), including the species described as Zyras (s.str.), is also given. Keywords Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae, Lomechusini, Zyras, taxonomy, myrmecophily Introduction Te Lomechusine genus Zyras Stephens, with currently 802 species and 54 subgenera (Hlaváč, Newton and Maruyama, in prep.), is certainly one of the largest and most problematic genera of the subfamily Aleocharinae. All species of the genus are believed to be free predators (synechtrans) of various species of ants. Te taxonomic chaos in this genus is manifested by the fact that 122 species were described only as Zyras with- out any aflation to a subgenus. Another 68 species originaly described as Zyras were subsequently synonymyzed or transferred to diferent genera. ZooKeys 29: 49–71 (2009) doi: 10.3897/zookeys.29.218 www.pensoftonline.net/zookeys Copyright P. Hlavácˇ, T. Jászay. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. RESEARCH ARTICLE Launched to accelerate biodiversity research A peer-reviewed open-access journal