Homaloxestis cholopis ( Meyrick, 1906 )

Park, Kyu-Tek & Byun, Bong-Kyu, 2007, Review of Homaloxestis Meyrick (Lepidoptera, Lecithoceridae) of the Philippine Islands, with descriptions of two new species, Zootaxa 1449, pp. 57-64 : 59-60

3. Homaloxestis cholopis ( Meyrick, 1906)

Lecithocera cholopis Meyrick, 1906: 149 . TL: Koni, Burma. Type in BMNH.

Homaloxestis cholopis: Clarke, 1965: 88 ; Gozmány, 1973: 415; 1978: 67; Wu, 1997: 146; Park 1999: 240.

Homaloxestis lophophora Janse, 1954 , 5: 341 TL: Pretoria. Deposition of type unknown. Synonymized by Gozmány (1978).

Homaloxestis surrepta Diakonoff, 1968: 130 , synonymized by Gozmány (1978). TL: Philippines. Type in USNM.

Diagnosis. Wingspan 14.5–16.0 mm. The species is superficially similar to H. baibaraensis Park, 1999 , but the apex of the forewing is more acute and the hindwing is more grayish. The male genitalia are similar to those of xylotripta Meyrick and australis Park, but can be distinguished by the shape of the valva with a nearly straight costa.

Male genitalia. See Clarke (1965: pl. 44, figs. 1a–b), Gozmány (1978: pl. 18, fig. 9), and Park (1999: figs. 25, 25a–b). Valva with costa nearly straight, no acute process on ventral margin medially.

Female genitalia. See Gozmány (1978: pl. 59, fig. 9) and Park (1999: fig. 52). Antrum short, nearly quadrate. Ductus bursae broadened medially, with many conical spines internally. Signum rhomboid with median groove.

Material examined. 1ɗ, Mt. Apo, Mindanao (erroneously cited as Luzon in the original description), 8.V.1945 (J. G. Franclemont), gen. prep. no. USNM-8996 Diakonoff. Type in USNM.

Distribution. Philippines, Taiwan, China, Myanmar, Nepal, India, Java, SW Africa.

Remarks. This species has a wide geographic distribution from eastern Asia to southwestern Africa. Diakonoff (1968) described H. surrepta Diakonoff from the Philippines, but it was latter synonymized with H. cholopis (Meyrick) by Gozmány (1978). See Diakonoff (1968: fig. 187) for an illustration of the male genitalia. No additional specimens from the Philippines were found during this study.