Pleuraphodius Schmidt 1913
Pleuraphodius Schmidt 1913: 121.

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Type species. Aphodius mutilis Schmidt 1911, by subsequent designation.

Diagnosis. Body length 3-5 mm; elongate, variably brown. Head smooth, lacking frontal tubercle. Clypeus rounded each side of median emargination. Pronotum with basal line. Elytral humerus dentate; striae broad; intervals convex, carinulate at sides. Protibial dorsal surface punctate. Metatibial apical spinules stout, progressively unequal in length.

Distribution. Afrotropical, Oriental, Palearctic, Brazil(?).

Composition. Worldwide, Pleuraphodius contains approximately 73 species, one of which is described from the New World.
Pleuraphodius vespuccii Petrovitz 1972: 162 [Aphodius], Brazil.

Life History. Unknown.

Larvae. Unknown.

Status of Classification. Pleuraphodius is considered to be restricted to the Old World. The primary elytral characters (finely carinulate intervals, etc.) are not unique and species placed in Pleuaphodius based on these make it polyphyletic (Dellacasa, Bordat, and Dellacasa 2001). The type of Pleuraphodius vespuccii appears to be a mis-labeled specimen (Skelley et al. 2007). Recognition of this genus in the New World fauna is tentative.

References:
Dellacasa, G., P. Bordat and M. Dellacasa. 2001. A revisional essay of world genus-group taxa of Aphodiinae (Coleoptera: Aphodiidae). Memorie della Societa Entomologica Italiana 79: 1-482.
Skelley, P. E., M. Dellacasa, G. Dellacasa, and R. D. Gordon. 2007. Checklist of the Aphodiini of Mexico, Central and South America (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae). Insecta Mundi 0014: 1-14.