The small Neotropical riodinid genus Minstrellus (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae) is described and revised. It seems to be most closely related to Pseudonymphidia Callaghan, in the incertae sedis section of the Riodininae. A phylogenetic analysis of its four species, using 11 characters of adult morphology, generated a single most parsimonious cladogram with the following structure: grandis (nivosa (leucotopus emphatica)). The species watkinsi d’Abrera, like all the taxa of Minstrellus, was described in Ematurgina Röber (a synonym of Synargis Hübner) and briefly subsequently treated in Zelotaea Bates, but it is here transferred to Machaya Hall & Willmott (n. comb.). The taxon emphatica Stichel is raised from a subspecies of leucotopus Stichel to the rank of species (n. stat.), and the name candida Le Cerf is synonymized with emphatica (n. syn.).