| Summary: | <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><p>The genus <em>Bennelongia</em> De Deckker & McKenzie, 1981 is most likely endemic to Australia and New Zealand and, up to now, only two described species in this genus had been reported from Western Australia. Extensive sampling in Western Australia revealed a much higher specific diversity. Here, we describe nine new species in three lineages, within the genus <em>Bennelongia</em>: <em>B. cygnus</em> sp. nov. and <em>B. frumenta</em> sp. nov. in the <em>B</em>. <em>cygnus</em> lineage, <em>B. gwelupensis</em> sp. nov., <em>B. coondinerensis</em> sp. nov., <em>B. cuensis</em> sp. nov., <em>B. lata</em> sp. nov. and <em>B. bidgelangensis</em> sp. nov. in the <em>B</em>. <em>australis</em> lineage, and <em>B. strellyensis</em> sp. nov. and <em>B. kimberleyensis</em> sp. nov. (from the Pilbara and Kimberley regions respectively) in the <em>B</em>. <em>pinpi</em>-lineage. For six of the nine species, we were also able to construct molecular phylogenies and to test for cryptic diversity with two different methods based on the evolutionary genetic species concept, namely Birky’s 4 x rule and the GYMC model. These analyses support the specific nature of at least four of the five new species in the <em>B.</em> <em>australis</em> lineage and of the two new species in the <em>B. pinpi </em>lineage. We also describe Bennelongiinae n.subfam. to accommodate the genus. With the nine new species described here, the genus <em>Bennelongia</em> now comprises 15 species, but several more await formal description.</p><br /></span></span>
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