Syzeuxis heteromeces Prout 1926
Creators: name: Li, Jing
name: Xue, Dayong
name: Han, Hongxiang
name: Galsworthy, Anthony C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Geometridae
Syzeuxis
Syzeuxis heteromeces

description: Syzeuxis heteromeces Prout, 1926
Figs 9, 21, 33, 40
Syzeuxis heteromeces Prout, 1926b, Mem. Dep. Agric. India (Ent.), 9 (8): 253. Holotype 3, India: Turzum Tea Estate, Nagrispur, near Darjiling. (BMNH)
Syzeuxis miniocalaria Xue, 1999, in Xue & Zhu, Fauna Sinica: Insecta, 15: 193, fig. 198, pl.4: 3. Holotype 3, China: Yunnan, Tengchong, Heinitang. (IZCAS) Syn. nov.
Syzeuxis miniocalaria Xue, 2000, Acta Zootaxonomica Sinica, 25 (1): 85, figs 3c, 5c.
Materials Examined. INDIA: 13, Holotype, Turzum Tea Estate, Nagrispur, no date, coll. O. Linlyrea, Geometridae Genitalia slide no. 20325 (BMNH); 1Ƥ, Khasis, nat. coll., ex Oberthür coll., Brit. Mus. 1927-3 (BMNH); 1Ƥ, Sylhet, H.M.Parish, 1910-62, Geometridae Genitalia slide no. 24012 (BMNH). CHINA: 13, Holotype of S. miniocalaria Xue, Yunnan: Tengchong, Heinitang, 1930 m, 28–30 May 1992, coll. Xue Dayong, slide no. L-2273 (IZCAS).
Description. Antennae in male bipectinate with tip ciliate, female unknown. Labial palpus strongly roughscaled, about extending 1/3 beyond frons. Vertex yellowish brown. Thorax and abdomen with dorsal side yellowish white to yellowish brown. Wing pattern. Forewing length: 3 8 mm; Ƥ 10 mm. Forewing pale yellowish brown, streaks black brown, hindwing slightly paler. Forewing with apex rounded and outer margin slightly protruding at middle. Forewing with a small black patch at wing base; antemedial and postmedial lines indistinct but broad, grey, forming large oblong black patches on costa; another small black patch present near apex; terminal line black, discontinuous. Hindwing with postmedial line thin at upper half and then suddenly broadened to inner margin; terminal line black brown between veins; discal spot tiny, grey brown. Male hindwing without basal lobe. Fringes of forewing black brown between vein M1–M3 and between CuA1 and vein 2A, yellowish white on other parts; yellowish white on hindwing, and black-brown under CuA1. Underside: forewing paler than upperside; with diffuse dense grey brown speckles from lower margin of cell to CuA2; postmedial line dark grey-brown, straight and broad, not reaching inner margin; with dark grey brown discal spot. Forewing with a single areole. Male genitalia. Uncus large and broad, slightly concave, posterior half with lateral margins strongly curved inwards towards a narrow apical section, expanded at tip. Gnathos with median process as in S. tessellifimbria. Valva membranous, small, with apex narrow; costa without process. Juxta developed, a large sclerotized rounded plate. Aedeagus narrow, with a blunt sclerotized posterior process, bearing a spinose tuft. Female genitalia. Ductus bursae short and membranous, without antrum or any sclerotized area. Corpus bursae oval, circled with a series of weakly sclerotized folds above middle.
Diagnosis. S. heteromeces is similar to S. nigrinotata in its small size and X-shaped hindwing postmedial line. But it differs in the presence of an areole on the forewing, which is absent in S. nigrinotata. In the male genitalia, the shape of the uncus of S. heteromeces, broadened and oval on basal two-thirds, and then suddenly narrowed at top one-fourth, is distinctly different from other species.
Distribution. China (Yunnan), India (Northeast).
description: Published as part of Li, Jing, Xue, Dayong, Han, Hongxiang & Galsworthy, Anthony C., 2012, Taxonomic review of Syzeuxis Hampson, 1895, with a discussion of biogeographical aspects (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Larentiinae), pp. 1-24 in Zootaxa 3357 on page 13, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.281595