Palophinae is a subfamily of the stick insect family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Diapheromeridae

Diapheromeridae

Diapheromeridae is a family of stick insects . They belong to the superfamily Anareolatae of suborder Verophasmatodea.The family contains some huge species, e.g. Paraphanocles keratosqueleton whch can grow to over 30 long....

. They belong to the superfamily Anareolatae of suborder Verophasmatodea

Verophasmatodea

Verophasmatodea is a suborder of the Phasmatodea that contains the vast majority of the extant species of stick and leaf-insects.-Superfamilies and families:* Superfamily Anareolatae** Diapheromeridae** Phasmatidae* Superfamily Areolatae...

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Altogether about 20 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of Palophinae are known to date. They have a relictual distribution and are endemic to the southern Africa

Southern Africa

Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...

, with one occurring as far north as the Gulf of Guinea

Gulf of Guinea

The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....

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Systematics

This is the smallest and least diverse of the Diapheromeridae subfamilies. Sometimes this subfamily is held to contain a single tribe Palophini, but this is redundant as long as no basal members of this lineage are known e.g. as fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

s. Of its mere two genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

, one is fairly speciose (with new species still being discovered), but the other is monotypic

Monotypic

In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...

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The genera are:

• Bactrododema Stål, 1858 (including Palophus)
• Dematobactron Karny, 1923