Microloxia chlorissoides ( Prout, 1912 ) Prout, 1912

Beljaev, Eugene A., 2007, Taxonomic changes in the emerald moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Geometrinae) of East Asia, with notes on the systematics and phylogeny of Hemitheini, Zootaxa 1584, pp. 55-68 : 66-67

Microloxia chlorissoides ( Prout, 1912) , comb. n.

Mixochlora chlorissoides Prout, 1912 , in Wytsmann, Gen. Ins. 129: 201. Holotype: ɗ (BMNH), China: Hong Kong, Happy Valley.

Chlorissa chlorissoides: Prout, 1934 , in Seitz, Grossschmett. Erde 12: 177. Nipponogelasma chlorissoides: Inoue, 1971: 145 , pl. 1: 4, pl. 2: 25, 25a, 26; Inoue, 1977: 235; 1982: 436, pl. 59: 17, 18, Cat. 2211; Parsons et al., 1999: 645.

Taxonomy. This species was examined in detail by Inoue (1971), who first described and illustrated the male and female genitalia. Based mostly on facies and wing venation, Inoue (1971) tentatively assigned the species to Nipponogelasma . However, the male of Mixochlora chlorissoides has a large conical distal process on the sacculus, which occurs very rarely in Geometrinae . In the Palaearctic region and in South East Asia this process is known only in the genus Microloxia Warren, 1893 .

The male genitalia of Mixochlora chlorissoides share with those of Microloxia herbaria (Hübner, 1813) (the type species of the genus) the following characters: uncus with short bifurcation at the apex; socii similar to uncus in length and shape; valva simple, elongate, with long, broad, slightly convex costa; sacculus with long, conical distal process reaching 4/5 length of valva; transtilla broad, platelike; saccus long, conical; and aedeagus simple, lacking cornuti (morphological data on Microloxia from the description and figures in Hausmann, 1995, 2001). In general, the male genitalia of Mixochlora chlorissoides are very similar to those of Microloxia herbaria ; they differ from the latter by the narrower socii, broader saccus, longer basal process of the aedeagus, and longer ventral processes of the transtilla. However, males of Mixochlora chlorissoides possess a long needlelike posterior process on the eighth abdominal sternite that is absent in other species of Microloxia . In the female genitalia, Mixochlora chlorissoides differs from Microloxia herbaria in the possession of a short ductus bursae and a rounded sacklike corpus bursae, but both species share a very characteristic signum consisting of two small, toothed plates.

External characters provide support for the transfer of Mixochlora chlorissoides to Microloxia , including Inoue's note on similarity of wing venation of Mixochlora chlorissoides Prout with that of " Nipponogelasma immunis " (= Aoshakuna lucia ). In the last species the forewing has a very short free basal portion of R1 fused with Sc for a long distance, a condition that rarely occurs in Geometrinae ; the same configuration of Sc–R1 is shown on the figure of the wing venaton of Microloxia herbaria and Microloxia simonyi (Rebel, 1894) by Hausmann (1995: figs 1, 2).

Distribution. Japan (Ryukyu), China (Southeast, Hainan), Taiwan, North Vietnam (" Tonkin ").