The clerine checkered beetle genus Dologenitus Opitz, new replacement name for Poecilochroa Chevrolat, 1876 (Insecta: Coleoptera: Cleridae), a junior primary homonym of Poecilochroa Westring, 1874 (Arachnida: Araneae: Gnaphosidae), is proposed and described to include Clerus cyanipennis Klug, Clerus nigrocinctus Klug, and Enoclerus paludatus (Vaurie). The new genus is based on four synapotypic characters that distinguish these beetles from other New World clerines and establish the monophyletic status of the genus. The characters are: stout dorsal setae particularly notable on the elytral disc; females with a dagger-like ovipositor; absence of an interspicular plate; and the female reproductive system without a saccular bursa copulatrix. Lectotypes are designated for D. cyanipennis (Klug), and Eurycranus pulchellus Wolcott and Placopterus obscuripes Pic are considered its junior synonyms. Clerus retrocinctus Corporaal and Clerus latefasciatus Wolcott are synonymized with D. nigrocinctus (Klug). Differences in the aedeagus, integument color, and general body form were used as criteria to predict what magnitude of anatomical difference represents a biological species. Field observations, and laboratory dissections of the digestive tract, revealed that these beetles are omnivorous: they feed on pollen and other flower-visiting insects. It is suggested that Dologenitus represents an ancient line of clerines that does not have closely related relatives among extant New World Clerinae. A fully resolved intrageneric hypothesis of phylogeny is provided. The treatment includes a halftone frontispiece, 37 line drawings, six color photographs depicting adult beetles, a character matrix, a phylogenetic tree, and three distribution maps.