Heliocypha, Fraser, 1949

Orr, Albert G. W., 2024, A review of present knowledge of larvae of the Calopterygoidea (Zygoptera) of the Oriental realm, including keys to families and known genera, Zootaxa 5497 (2), pp. 209-243 : 230

Heliocypha

The genus includes nine species ranging from Sundaland to south India and southern China including Taiwan. The habitus of the larva of Heliocypha bisignata (Hagen) with a partial view of the mask was figured by Fraser (1928), which he later briefly described (as Rhinocypha ), ( Fraser 1934). Lieftinck (1947) provided an illustration of the habitus of H. fenestrata (Burmeister) and described its habitat and later provided accurate details of the prementum and labial palp ( Lieftinck 1962). Kumar & Prasad (1977c) provided for H. biforata (Selys) a minutely detailed description and illustration, including the habitus. In the key “scape rough” is said to characterise this species and appears as a possible generic character. However this apparent roughness may be an illusion created by short recurved setae which in wet specimens trap fluid and give the appearance of small tubercles where none are present (Orr et al. 2024). The drawing of the antenna in this paper depicts the warty scape as 0.33 times the overall length of the antenna, but by the measurements given in the text and the depiction of the antennae on the habitus drawing this proportion should be 0.42, which is very close to the other species considered, hence the detailed drawing itself must be regarded as a lapsus, perhaps because it was inadvertently observed at an angle. The authors do not comment on an obviously relatively short scape. The widespread H. p. perforata , was described with little attention to detail by Xu (2015); it almost certain this paper overlooks the small supplementary branch on the outer process of the labial palp, as this is visible in a very young specimen of this species figured by Ng (2024c) and occurs on all other members of the family examined ( Fraser 1919 a, Kumar 1973, Kumar & Prasad 1977 c, Orr et al. 2024). However the caudal spikes in the habitus photograph conform closely with other known species. Finally, a detailed description of the Bornean endemic H. biseriata was given by Orr et al. (2024). It was concluded that the thick but gently tapered caudal spikes and short curled setae on the scape, creating the impression of small tubercles in wet specimens, may be diagnostic at least when compared with Aristocypha sp.