Oxymacaria, WARREN, 1894

Scoble, Malcolm J. & Krüger, Martin, 2002, A review of the genera of Macariini with a revised classification of the tribe (Geometridae: Ennominae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 134 (3), pp. 257-315 : 285-288

OXYMACARIA WARREN

(Figs 18–20, 130–135)

Oxymacaria Warren, 1894 . Type species: Azata palliata Hampson, 1891 . India.

Heterocallia Leech, 1897 . Type species: Heterocallia truncaria Leech, 1897 . China. [Synonymized by Holloway, [1994]: 159.]

Ligdiformia Wehrli, 1937 . Type species: Macaria temeraria Swinhoe, 1891 . [ India]: Khasia Hills. [Originally proposed as a subgenus of Semiothisa Hübner. ] [Synonymized by Holloway, [1994]: 159.]

Selected reference. Holloway ([1994]).

Description

Head. Antenna usually bipectinate in male, filiform in truncaria . Chaetosemata separated, not extended across head.

Wings (Figs 18–20). Brownish and ochreous with lines present in fore- and hindwing. Forewing falcate, usually with a large dark spot postmedially. Hindwing slightly produced.

Male genitalia (Figs 130, 131, 133, 135). Uncus relatively broad, narrowing towards slightly beaked apex; without horns; setose. Gnathos with medial element not strongly developed. Valva: costa narrow, spinelike, lacking a setose lobe at base; not spine-like in truncaria .

Pregenital abdomen of male (Fig. 134). Sternum A8 hardly modified; not deeply excavated, nor cleft, nor sclerotized. Sternum A3 with pecten present or absent.

Female genitalia (Fig. 132). Ductus bursae with antrum weakly sclerotized. Corpus bursae with prominent signum.

Diagnosis. Oxymacaria s. str. (i.e. excluding truncaria ) is distinguished from all other genera lacking uncus horns, except for Semiothisa , by the presence of a narrow, curved, spine-like costa. Oxymacaria lacks the distinctive setose knob at the base of the costa in Semiothisa and, also unlike the condition in Semiothisa , it has usually, in the male sex, bipectinate antennae and a barely modified sternum A8. The forewing of Oxymacaria is falcate, a feature useful in recognizing the genus. Oxymacaria occurs in the Oriental and Australasian region; Semiothisa is restricted to the Neotropics.

The male genitalia of O. truncaria (Leech) , the type species of Heterocallia , lack the spine-like costa so characteristic of Oxymacaria s. str. The synonymy of Heterocallia with Oxymacaria s. str. made by Holloway ([1994]) was based primarily on similarity of forewing shape, the presence of a moderately strong fovea and of white marks around the apex of the forewing.

Distribution. Oriental and Indo-Pacific regions. O. truncaria occurs in China.

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Figures 118–123. Dissomorphia , Paramelora and Eumacaria : 118, D. australiaria , ♂ genitalia; 119, D. australiaria , ♀ genitalia; 120, P. zophodesma , ♂ genitalia; 121, P. zophodesma , sternum A8 of ♂; 122, M. latiferrugata , ♂ genitalia; 123, M. latiferrugata , ♀ genitalia.

Comments. Fletcher (1979) treated Oxymacaria as a subjective replacement name [a concept apparently not accepted by the current version of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1999)] for Xenoneura Warren, 1896 , a junior homonym of Xenoneura Scudder, 1867 , in the belief that the type species ( tephrinata Warren ) was congeneric with Oxymacaria . However, in the present work, tephrinata is assigned to Chiasmia Hübner.

The absence of the typical spine-like costa of the valva in truncaria casts some doubt as to the validity of synonymizing Heterocallia with Oxymacaria . However, both genera share a similar forewing shape and white markings and these are distinctive within Macariini . We therefore follow Holloway’s synonymy, although with some reluctance.

Number of species. Eighteen species are listed by Parsons et al. (1999).