Subgenus Raphirus Diagnosis. In spite of several available larval descriptions of the members of Raphirus: Q. alpestris, Q. ghilarovi, Q. fumatus, Q. humeralis, Q. lateralis, Q. nemoralis, Q. picipes, Q. semiobscurus, Q. suturalis, Q. umbrinus (Paulian 1941; Smetana 1962; Pototskaya 1967; Frank 1969; Kasule 1970), only four common characters were determined at the subgenus level, which are as follows: head widened anteriorly, posterior part of nasale as in the subgenus Quedius (Fig. 3B), large sensory appendage on segment III acorn-shaped, pygopod clearly longer than urogomphi (Fig. 11D). These diagnostic characters, however, only permit distinguishing the subgenus Raphirus from Microsaurus, but not from Quedius or Distichalius. This probably results from the lack of sufficiently detailed morphological data on species described earlier, and perhaps a high morphological diversity of Raphirus larvae. That fact could also confirm the hypothesis that this subgenus, as presently defined may be artificial.

Published as part of Pietrykowska-Tudruj, Ewa, Czepiel-Mil, Katarzyna & Staniec, Bernard, 2014, Larval morphology of selected Quedius Stephens, 1829 (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylinini) with comments on their subgeneric affiliation, pp. 493-516 in Zootaxa 3827 (4) on page 510, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3827.4.4, http://zenodo.org/record/286504