Devilleferus brunkei Jenkins Shaw & Solodovnikov, gen. et sp. nov., a distinctive new genus and species of Staphylinini rove beetle with an unusual set of morphological characters is described from the tropical Andes (Ecuador and possibly Colombia and Bolivia) in South America. To resolve systematic placement of the new genus within Staphylinini we assembled a dataset of 68 morphological characters scored for 34 taxa representing a broad sample of the respective rove beetle tribe, and performed Bayesian inference and maximum parsimony phylogenetic analyses. Both analytical methods unambiguously placed Devilleferus as sister to the subtribe Amblyopinina, and overall they corroborated recently established subtribal systematics for Staphylinini inferred mainly from molecular markers. Based on the shared synapomorphies, Devilleferus is assigned to the subtribe Amblyopinina. The internal relationships within Amblyopinina remain to be clarified in a broader study of that very poorly explored austral lineage.