The tribe Bactrophorini of the Bactrophorinae is briefly reviewed. Two new genera are erected: Mayalina, and Hylaezentia. Three new species (M. cohni, M. teapensis and M. chajulensis) of Mayalina are described. A key to the genera of the tribe is included.

A cladistic analysis of morphological characters indicates that the Bactrophorini genera fall into two well-supported clades. The first, (“Hyleacrae”, after its most basal member) has as its basal branches, the exclusively Amazonian Hyleacris and the Amazonian and Central American Bactrophora; as its crown group it contains all the remaining Central American genera except Mezentia. The Central American genera of the Hyleacrae fall into two lineages: first, the sister genera Cristobalina and Mayalina (the “Cristobalina genus group”) of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, and secondly the “Rhicnoderma genus group”, composed of four genera (Rhicnoderma Gerstaecker, 1889, Lempira (Rehn, 1938) and Pararhicnoderma Rowell, 2012, which occur from Southern Mexico south to Panama, plus the Panamanian endemic Panamacris Rehn, 1938, which is apparently the sister genus of Rhicnoderma).

The second clade of the tribe (“Borae”, after its most basal member, Bora) contains four exclusively Amazonian genera, plus the fifth and most derived genus, Mezentia, which has both Central American and Colombian species. In the Borae there is a second basal genus, Silacris, and then a crown group consisting of three very closely related genera, Mezentia, Andeomezentia and Hylaezentia, here referred to as the “Mezentia genus group”.