The water scavenger beetle genus Novochares Girón & Short, 2021 is a common-encountered Neotropical group that is found in a variety of aquatic habitats from streams and rivers to ponds and marshes. This monograph serves as a modern taxonomic revision of Novochares using a combination of adult morphological and DNA sequence data. In this work, 38 new species are described from across South America, and new records are provided for most previously described taxa. Novochares now contains 52 species and spans the entire Neotropical region from Mexico to Argentina, including the Caribbean islands. Novochares sallaei (Sharp, 1882) is considered native to the USA (Florida) and not an introduced species as previously suggested. While taxa across the genus are relatively homogeneous externally, the form of the aedeagus is very intricate and highly variable, providing a means to morphologically delimit and identify species.
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