Rhodostrophia Hübner, 1823

Cui, Le, Xue, Dayong & Jiang, Nan, 2019, Description of two new species of Rhodostrophia Hübner, 1823 from China (Lepidoptera, Geometridae), Zootaxa 4563 (2), pp. 337-353 : 338

Rhodostrophia Hübner, 1823

Rhodostrophia Hübner, 1823 , Verz. bekannter Schmett.: 300. Type species: Phalaena calabra Petagna, 1786 .

Delocharis Butler, 1883 , Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1883: 172. Type species: Delocharis herbicolens Butler, 1883 .

Leptosidia Hampson, 1903 , J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 14: 653. Type species: Leptosidia araearia Hampson, 1903 .

Pellonia Duponchel, 1829 , in Godart & Duponchel, Hist. nat. Lépid. Papillons Fr., 7 (2): 109. Type species: Phalaena vibicaria Clerck, 1759 .

Apostates Warren, 1897 , Novit. zool., 4: 214. Type species: Apostates albiclathrata Warren, 1897 .

Generic characters. Antennae quadripectinate in male, rami thin and covered with cilia ventrally; filiform in female. Frons slightly protruded. Hind tibia with four or three spurs in male, with four spurs in female. Venation. Forewing with two areoles (except R. solitaria (Christoph, 1887)) ; veins R 2–4 stalked, arising from apical angle of the second areole with vein R 5. Hind wing with veins Rs and M 1 shortly stalked; veins M 3 and CuA 1 usually separated. Forewing length: male 12–19 mm; female 1 3–18 mm. Forewing with apex acute or slightly falcate; outer margin straight or slightly curved; hind wing with rounded apex, outer margin sometimes weakly protruding at vein M 3. Forewing with antemedial line mostly present, sometimes weak or absent; discal spot small; medial line present in most species, straight, strongly inclined and distinctly distal from discal spot, rarely shaped differently or absent; postmedial line usually wavy, sometimes straight.

Male genitalia. Uncus long, weakly sclerotized, setose apically, narrow at base, terminally usually dilated and bifurcate on posterior margin. Gnathos present. Valva often with spines or processes at apex. Saccus usually small. Aedeagus long and slender, usually curved, sometimes with small teeth on terminal part; vesica usually without cornutus except R. stueningi sp. nov. Eighth sternite weakly sclerotized, bilobed on the posterior margin.

Female genitalia. Surrounding of ostium sclerotized. Ductus bursae usually strongly sclerotized, often interrupted by membranous areas. Corpus bursae rounded or oval, membranous. Signum sometimes strong, coatshaped, sometimes weak, or composed of two thin elongate sclerites connecting by a sclerotized diffuse band at base. Seventh sternite sometimes concave on posterior margin, sometimes forming a pair of curved lateral pouchlike processes on anterior margin (not separate from female genitalia except in R. stueningi sp. nov. in our study).

Diagnosis. The genus is distinguished from other genera in the tribe by the following characters: the male antennae are quadripectinate; the forewing often has two areoles, R 2–4 are stalked, R 5 is raised from the apex of the second areole. In the male genitalia, the uncus is long and dilated apically; the male eighth sternite is bilobed on posterior margin. In the female genitalia, the ductus bursae is often sclerotized except a small membranous gap near middle, sometimes sclerotized totally.

Distribution. Palearctic, Oriental and Neotropical ( Chile) regions.

Biology. Prout (1912 –1916) also briefly discussed the characters of the larvae and pupa. Hausmann (2004) provided the biology and habitat of some species from Europe.

Remarks. Based on the definition of species-groups by Hausmann (2004), we placed some Chinese species into different species-groups. The jacularia species-group contains R. jacularia ( Hübner, 1813) . The vibicaria species-group contains R. vibicaria . The calabra species-group contains R. bicolor Warren, 1895 , R. yunnanaria ( Oberthür, 1923) , R. similata ( Moore, 1888) , R. plesiochora Prout, 1917 , R. reisseri sp. nov., R. bisinuata Warren, 1895 and R. philolaches . We do not place the following species into any existent species-group in the present study: R. stueningi sp. nov. agrees with the vibicaria species-group in forked valva of the male genitalia, but it has a dentate ventral surface of the antennal flagellum and a cornutus; R. tristrigalis Butler, 1889 and R. pelloniaria ( Guenée, 1858) agree with calabra species-group in the dentate ventral surface of the antennal flagellum, however they do not have spines on the process of the valva; R. grumaria (Alphéraky, 1892) was placed in the calabra species-group by Prout (1912 –1916), unfortunately we did not have the chance to examine the species within the present study, as well as R. tremiscens Prout, 1918 , R. anchotera Prout, 1935 and R. olivacea Warren, 1895 , which have not been attributed to any species-group before. Definition of the species-group still needs modification based on a worldwide revision of the genus.