Analyses of material collected recently and considerations of biogeographic coherence support the formation of a Porphyronota carnifex species-group, comprising four separate entities. Thus, the previously known P. carnifex s. str. is now subdivided into P. carnifex (Fabricius), with an exclusive northwestern Cape distribution, and P. variegata (Boheman, 1857), with a broader eastern, circum-Drakensberg distribution. The elevation to species level of P. carnifex rougemonti Holm, 1990 from Ethiopia, as proposed earlier by Antoine in 2004, is supported. Porphyronota carnifex tottenhami Holm, 1990 from Angola is also recognized as a proper species, on the basis of several diagnostic characters including a completely black head in both sexes, a great reduction of the paler areas on the abdominal sternites and a poor lateral extension of the ventral lobes of the aedeagal parameres..