Paramelora, Lower, 1903

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 : 281-283

PARAMELORA LOWER

(Figs 15, 120, 121)

Paramelora Lower, 1903 . Type species: Paramelora zophodesma Lower, 1903 . Australia.

Description

Head. Chaetosemata clearly extended, but not meeting. Antenna bipectinate in male.

Wings (Fig. 15). Forewing not falcate; termen convex; greyish with dark markings. Hindwing pale.

Male genitalia (Fig. 120). Uncus weakly notched at apex, not pointed; scattered setae present but horns not convincingly defined; setae distributed regularly, but not densely, over surface. Gnathos: medial element prominent. Valva: divided, but not strongly, into broad sacculus with small point and a strong apical ridge; costa elbowed.

Pregenital abdomen of male (Fig. 121). Sternum A8 notched.

Female genitalia. Not examined. Diagnosis. The form of the male genitalia is sufficiently distinctive for the only species validly assigned to this genus to be recognized.

Distribution. Australia.

Comments. Paramelora is retained as a genus because there is insufficient reason to synonymize it with any other. Although uncus horns are not clearly defined, there are several scattered setae dorsally on the uncus and, perhaps, some hint of a pair being stronger than the others. So although the uncus of Paramelora is not horned, the possibility remains either that it has not quite gained the horned condition or that horns have secondarily diminished.

The genitalia exhibit some similarities with those of adzearia Oberthür from Tibet, incorrectly assigned to Proutictis (a substitute name for Diastictis ) in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London.

Two other species were listed under Paramelora by McQuillan & Edwards (1996). These are lychnota Lower and ammophila Turner, and they are probably synonymous. These species do not belong to Paramelora . The deeply divided valva is typical of the Platypepla -group of genera, but the corpus bursae of the female genitalia lacks the densely spinose condition of that group and the signum is of the primitive kind – a single-spined plate, widespread in Ennominae , but small and with short spines.

Number of species. Probably just one species, see above.