Hieromantis Meyrick, 1897

Guan, Wei & Li, Houhun, 2015, Review of the genus Hieromantis Meyrick from China, with descriptions of three new species (Lepidoptera, Stathmopodidae), ZooKeys 534, pp. 85-102 : 86-88

Taxon classification Animalia Lepidoptera Stathmopodidae

Hieromantis Meyrick, 1897

Hieromantis Meyrick, 1897: 315. Type species: Hieromantis ephodophora Meyrick, 1897, by monotypy.

Generic characters.

Adult. Head smoothly scaled. Antenna (Figs 2, 5) with scape dilated, concave ventrally and forming an eye-cap; flagellum ciliated in male, simple in female. Labial palpus (Figs 2, 6) with third segment slightly longer than second segment. Maxillary palpus (Fig. 2) four-segmented, extremely short. Forewing lanceolate, usually having a loose patch consisting of scale tufts with metallic luster on dorsum; R1 and R2 arising from before upper angle of cell, R3 arising from upper angle of cell, R4 and R5 stalked, R5 reaching costa near apex; M1 and M2 nearly parallel, M3 arising from lower angle of cell; CuA1 and CuA2 very short, nearly parallel; 1A+2A furcate at base. Hindwing narrowly lanceolate, with long cilia approximately seven times width of wing; R2+3 reaching 2/5 of costa, R4+5 reaching costa before apex; M2 and M3 usually present (Fig. 3a), but sometimes coincident (Fig. 3b). Hindleg with tibia dorsally bearing tufts of erect scales, with bundles of bristles at apex. Abdominal tergites with second to seventh segments of male and second to sixth segments of female lined with spines on posterior margin (Fig. 4).

Male genitalia. Uncus usually subtriangular; gnathos broad tongue-shaped or subtriangular, about same length as uncus. Valva straight or obliquely upturned distally; sacculus weakly sclerotized. anellus lobes developed, usually longer than juxta. Aedeagus with a distal clubbed projection ventrally; cornutus present or absent.

Female genitalia. Intersegmental membrane between papilla analis and eighth abdominal segment usually longer than twice length of papilla analis. Antrum usually rectangular. Corpus bursae round or ovate, sometimes elongated; signum present or absent. Appendix bursae long tube shaped, usually with dilation. Ductus seminalis extremely thin.

Diagnosis.

The genus Hieromantis is related to Stathmopoda by sharing a ciliated antenna in male. It can be easily separated by the dilated scape that forms an eye-cap and the forewing that usually has a large patch with metallic luster on the dorsum.

Biology.

Little is known about the biology of Hieromantis . Larvae of Hieromantis kurokoi Yasuda, 1988 were found on Cuscuta japonica Choisy in autumn ( Murase 2002).

Distribution.

China, Japan, Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands, Russia, Australia, New Guinea, Samoa, Fiji, Guadalcanal Island.

Key to Chinese species of Hieromantis