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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Polyphaga » Series Cucujiformia » Cleroidea » Soft-winged Flower Beetles (Melyridae) » Malachiinae » Malachiini » Ilopina » Nodopus

Genus Nodopus

Classification · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Identification · Range · Remarks · Works Cited

Soft-winged Flower Beetle - Nodopus flavilabris - male

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Polyphaga

No Taxon (Series Cucujiformia)

Superfamily Cleroidea

Family Melyridae (Soft-winged Flower Beetles)

Subfamily Malachiinae

Tribe Malachiini

Subtribe Ilopina

Genus Nodopus

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

reviewed in(1)

Explanation of Names

Nodopus Marshall 1951

Numbers

5 spp. in our area(2)(3)

N. caviceps Marshall (e. US)

N. tibialis Mayor & Wittmer (GA)

N. erichsonii (LeConte) (MB & e. US)

N. flavilabris (Say) (e. NA)

N. ventralis (Horn) (TX)

Identification

In most species the male head is modified, but a few have the tips of the elytra modified into what look like flaps from an envelope. Still others lack any modification of the head or elytra. In the male front legs, the 1st tarsomere is modified into a broad lobe with spicules at the end, and the cluster of short spicules at the apex of tibiae. Fore over a century the species with modified elytra have been treated incorrectly as Anthocomus.

Females are difficult to differentiate from Attalus. In Nodopus, erect setae are absent from the elytra or restricted to a few scattered erect setae near the base of the elytra close to the pronotum. In Attalus females (at least the Eastern U.S. species), the species have erect black setae on the elytra. (A. Mayor, pers.comm. to B Barnd)

Range

eastern forests from Canada to FL & LA (Dr Mayor's comment)

Remarks

uncommon in collections (Dr Mayor's comment)

Works Cited

1.	A review of the genus Nodopus, with a description of a new species from southeastern North America (Coleoptera: Malachiidae) Mayor A., Wittmer W. 1981. Col. Bull. 35: 473-476.

2.	American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea Arnett, R.H., Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.

3.	Nomenclatorial corrections for Dasytidae and Malachiidae (Coleoptera) Adriean Mayor. 2003. Insecta Mundi, 17: 85-96.

Contributed by tom murray on 12 January, 2010 - 6:26pm
Additional contributions by Bbarnd, Mike Quinn, v belov
Last updated 7 May, 2018 - 6:43pm

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