Together Caminara Motschulsky, 1866 and Campalita Motschulsky, 1866 belong to the Calosoma that have the ligula of the endophallus sclerified ("Calosomes ongulés" sensu Jeannel, 1940). Furthermore, always according to Jeannel (1940), they fall in the phyletic line Castrida-Caminara, that he considers originated from the ancient Afro-Brazilian plateau.
With the exception of American Castrida Motschoulsky, 1866, all other subgenera in the group have the metaepisternum with fine and dense punctuation. Caminara and Campalita differ from Charmosta Motschulsky, 1866 and Ctenosta Motschulsky, 1866 because they still have a seta close to hind angles of the pronotum. The further distinction between them was based by Jeannel (1940) on the evolutive characteristics of the sculpture of the elytra, that he considered as the fundamental element for the reconstruction of the phylogeny of the group. Only two species (C. imbricatum Klug 1832 and C. chlorostictum Dejean 1831) were included in Caminara by Jeannel (1940).
Conversely Basilewski (1972: 37), coming back to the approach of Breuning (1927-28), and of other later authors (Khryzhanowsky 1962, Mandl, 1970), has considered the the chaetotaxy and the shape of male's mesotibiae as the most important characteristics. So he attributed to the subgenus Caminara all species with the mesotibiae of males free of brush on the inner side and stright or slightly curved in both sexes.
According to the opinion of Basilewsky, that we share, Caminara includes six species with 16 or 22 striae on each elytron ("triploïde" or "pentaploïde" type): C. imbricatum Motschulsky, 1866 and C. olivieri Dejean, 1831, widespread in Africa (Equatorial and Southern Africa for C. imbricatum and Mediterranean for C. olivieri), as well as in Arabian Peninsula and India; C. reitteri Roeschke, 1896, found in Central Asia only; C. davidis Géhin, 1885 from the Himalaya to the mountains of central China over 2000-2500m of altitude (to which C. arrowianum, described by Breuning (1927) on a single specimen of Tibet, probably must be assimilated); and finally the northernmost C. denticolle Gebler, 1833 from the Balkans to the Urals and to eastern Siberia.