| Eupalessa | |
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| Genus: | Eupalessa Monné, 2005 [1] |
| Species: | E. attenuata |
| Binomial name | |
| Eupalessa attenuata (Thomson, 1868) | |
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Eupalessa attenuata is a species of beetle in the family Cerambycidae, and the only species in the genus Eupalessa. It was described by Thomson in 1868. [2] The genus was originally known as Eupales, named by Dillon and Dillon in 1945; however, this name was preoccupied by the leaf beetle genus Eupales Lefèvre, 1885, so it was renamed to Eupalessa by Miguel A. Monné in 2005. [1]
Beetles are a group of insects that form the order Coleoptera, in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal life-forms; new species are discovered frequently. The largest of all families, the Curculionidae (weevils) with some 80,000 member species, belongs to this order. Found in almost every habitat except the sea and the polar regions, they interact with their ecosystems in several ways: beetles often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are serious agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle, while others such as Coccinellidae eat aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.
Eupales is a genus of leaf beetles in the subfamily Eumolpinae. They are found in Southeast Europe, mostly in Hungary, the Balkan Peninsula, and Turkey. The genus contains only one species, Eupales ulema. In Verma et al. (2005), the genus is placed as the only member of the tribe Eupalini, though in Bouchard et al. (2011) the genus is listed as Eumolpinae incertae sedis.
