Euops

Riedel, Alexander, 2009, A taxonomic study of the Indian species of Euops Schoenherr (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea: Attelabidae), Zootaxa 2125, pp. 1-56 : 13

Euops subgenus Flavoriedeliops Legalov stat. n.

Flavoriedeliops Legalov, 2003: 388 ; type species, by original designation: Flavoriedeliops tamildunensis Legalov, 2003 .

Diagnosis. In its current sense this monotypic subgenus has the following diagnostic characters: 1) coloration yellow-orange; 2) prementum with two teeth; 3) metanotum simple, without lateral lobes and sutural spines.

Notes. Legalov (2003) provided two distinguishing features when describing Flavoriedeliops as a new genus, namely the orange coloration and the mesotibial tooth in the male. The latter character, however, is common in Riedeliops and other species-groups, thus leaving only the coloration as a distinction for this taxon. However, Legalov overlooked two other important diagnostic characters of E. tamilnadunsis , namely the prementum having only two teeth (instead of three as in other Indian species) and the metanotum having no lateral lobes or sutural spines. It is possible that these characters are only reductions correlated with the small size of the species. A relationship with the Papuan subgenus Euopsidius Legalov appears unlikely because of the large distributional gap and the close similarity of the TA of E. tamilnadunsis to that of Indian species such as E. bowringii and E. andrewesi . In all these species the basal sclerite has basal hook-like extensions, a character not found in Papuan species. The very similar structure of the femur in species of Riedeliops might also indicate a relationship existing with this subgenus or at least some of its species. At present, however, the phylogenetic position of E. tamilnadunsis is unclear and it is therefore here retained in its own subgenus.