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Eucyclodes
Warren
Type species: buprestaria Guenée, Tasmania.
Synonyms: Anisozyga Prout (type species pieroides Walker,
Queensland) syn. n. (replacement name for Anisogamia Warren, praeocc.); Chloromachia
Warren (type species divapala Walker) syn. n.; Chlorostrota Warren
(type species praeampla Warren, N.E. Himalaya) syn. n.; Felicia Thierry-Mieg
(type species caledonica Thierry-Mieg, New Caledonia) syn. n.; Galactochlora
Warren (type species nivestrota Warren
= pulchella Warren, New Guinea) syn. n.; Lophomachia Prout (type
species semialba Walker) syn. n.; Ochrognesia Warren (type species
difficta Warren, China) syn. n.; Osteosema Warren (type species sanguilineata
Moore, Bengal) syn. n.
Eucyclodes is the oldest name (with page priority
over Ochrognesia and Osteosema) for the numerous taxa that
represent the Nemoriiti in the Indo Australian tropics (Geometrini). No clear
subdivisions have been detected amongst these taxa, and identification of
characters defining such subdivisions, if they occur, will require revision of
the group as a whole, much as was undertaken by Pitkin (1993) for the New World
taxa.
The genus Chlorodes Guenée is represented by a
single species in Tasmania. It has male genitalia of the basic Nemoriiti
pattern, though the valve is simple, but very distinctive facies: the forewings
have the green traversed by strong white bands, dentate or angled, and the
hindwings are almost pure white.
The general features of the tribe are discussed on (Geometrini)
and are common to Eucyclodes species. The uncus of the male genitalia is
usually long, apically spatulate and often bilobed. The facies is variable,
usually consisting of white blotches and lines on deep emerald green. Many taxa
are sexually dimorphic, females tending to have the white areas of the
respective males, suffused with red or blackish scales. In the hindwing veins Rs
and M1, and M3 and CuA1, are more consistently stalked (Fig 3) than in New World
taxa. The male antennae vary from ciliate through serrate and narrowly
bipectinate to broadly bipectinate. The male third sternite usually, but not
always, has two patches of setae, and these tend to be large, sparse when they
occur. The female genitalia are highly variable. The signum when it occurs is
bicornute or a transverse ridge. The ovipositor lobes are rather rounded, less
oblique than in the typical modified geometrine form, but have the
characteristic rather papillate setation.
Biological information on the genus has been located in
Balciunas et al. (1993), Bell (MS), Bigger (1988), McFarland (1988),
Moore (1884-7), Nakajima & Sato (1979), Sevastopulo (1946) and Singh (1956).
The larva is characterised by prominent dorsolateral flanges
from the thoracic and anterior abdominal segments (Bigger, 1988: Plate 20) and a
characteristic hunched resting posture. These features also occur in Neotropical
Nemoriiti (Ferguson, 1985; Pitkin, 1993) and in the Comibaeniti (Comibaena
Hübner).
Pupation is in an intricate and well-formed cocoon that
incorporates leaves, shoots, frass and other debris.
The larvae are mostly recorded as feeding from young leaf tissue,
shoots, buds, flowers and green fruit of a wide range of plant families:
Combretaceae (Terminalia); Lauraceae (Cassytha); Leguminosae (Acacia,
Cassia); Loranthaceae (Loranthus); Melastomataceae (Memecylon);
Myrsinaceae (Maesa); Myrtaceae
(guava, Callistemon, Eucalyptus, Eugenia, Melaleuca, Myrtella (=
Fenzla),
Myrtus); Proteaceae (Macadamia); Sapindaceae (Dodonaea); Theaceae
(Eurya). New World Nemoriiti are also recorded from a very wide range of
plant families (Pitkin, 1993: 64).
The genus is widespread and speciose in
the Indo-Australian tropics, but exhibits its greatest diversity in New Guinea.
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