[3][4] Mycologists Paul Bertéa and Alain Estadès described this species as Boletus luteocupreus in 1990.

The type specimen had been collected by Estadès in 1986 from the Lachau commune in the Drôme department of southeastern France.

[5] In a molecular analysis of Boletaceae phylogeny, Boletus luteocupreus was most closely related to B. torosus; these two species formed a clade that was sister to B. luridus.

[6] Genetic analysis published in 2013 showed that B. luteocupreus and many (but not all) red-pored boletes were part of a dupainii clade (named for B. dupainii), well-removed from the core group of Boletus edulis (the type species of genus Boletus) and relatives within the Boletineae.

[2] Imperator luteocupreus occurs in the Canary Islands,[8] Menorca,[9] Cyprus,[4] Serbia,[10] North Macedonia,[11] Moldova,[12] Sicily,[13] Corsica, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Bulgaria, where it is rare.