Revision of the genus Ruteria Roudier, 1954 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Cryptorhynchinae)

The 15 species of the genus Ruteria are redescribed and for all species differential diagnoses are presented. A lectotype of Acalles porcheti Hoffmann, 1935 is designated. This species doesn't belong to the genus Ruteria as hitherto accepted [Stueben 1998c][Wolf 2001], but is really a species of the genus Onyxacalles Stueben 1999 and must be ranked among the Onyxacalles pyrenaeus group. The taxa Ruteria tyrrhenica (Caldara, 1978) and Ruteria bellieri epirica Wolf, 2001 could be synonyms of Ruteria bellieri bellieri (Reiche, 1860) and Ruteria kakhetica Savitsky, 1997 could be a synonym of Ruteria hyrcanica Savitsky, 1997. But a clear allocation of one of these species is, however, still impossible only by using 'morphological' characters. Here any differential diagnosis is reliant on an integrative taxonomy combining DNA taxonomy, morphology and cross-breedings, which will be done over the next years. Relevant external characters and the male genitalia of all discussed taxa are illustrated. Moreover, a new diagnostic key allows the identification of all species of the genus Ruteria