The genus Zabrus Clairville, 1806 is a Holomediterranean taxon that radiated into about a hundred species most likely during the Cenozoic. There are four endemic subgenera on the Iberian Peninsula, which include 28 species, Epomidozabrus (3 spp.), Euryzabrus (1 sp.), Platyzabrus (2 spp.) and Iberozabrus (22 spp.). A mitochondrial fragment comprising part of the cytochrome-oxidase-I, tRNAleu, and part of the cytochrome-oxidase-II genes was sequenced of most of these species. Taxa of other subgenera of Zabrus (Macarozabrus, Polysitus, Zabrus, and Pelor), six species of Amara (the putative sister taxon of Zabrus), and representatives of tribes related to Zabrini were also sequenced. The results show that the genus Zabrus is a monophyletic taxon well separated from Amara. The four subgenera endemic to the Iberian Peninsula also make up a monophyletic clade, which stresses the association between the geographic distribution and the monophyly of many supraspecific taxa within this genus. The species-rich subgenus Iberozabrus seems to be the sister taxon of the clade made up of the three other subgenera endemic to the Iberian Peninsula. The Iberozabrus species-groups proposed by Andújar & Serrano in 2001, based on morphological and geographical grounds, are only partly corroborated by the molecular phylogeny. The lack of congruence between these data sets is mainly between those species-groups with large numbers of species and more complex geographic patterns. Some cases of incongruence are possibly due to homoplasic external characters appeared by convergent evolution.