Oenochroma Guenée, 1858

Hausmann, Axel, Hebert, Paul D. N., Mitchell, Andrew, Rougerie, Rodolphe, Sommerer, Manfred, Edwards, Ted & Young, Catherine J., 2009, Revision of the Australian Oenochroma vinaria Guenée, 1858 species-complex (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Oenochrominae): DNA barcoding reveals cryptic diversity and assesses status of type specimen without dissection, Zootaxa 2239, pp. 1-21 : 7

Genus Oenochroma Guenée, 1858

All 20 species of the genus Oenochroma Guenée, 1858 as listed in Scoble (1999) are distributed in mainland Australia except one species which is restricted to New Caledonia ( Oenochroma unifasciata Holloway, 1979 ). From dissections, it is most likely that Oenochroma hieroglyphica (Warren, 1906) , which was described from Papua New Guinea, Mt. Kaindi, is a junior synonym of Oenochroma turneri (Lucas, 1892) , described from Toowoomba near Brisbane. Two species are known to occur both in mainland Australia and in Tasmania: Oenochroma vinaria and Oenochroma vetustaria (Walker, 1860) ( McQuillan 2004) . The type species of the genus, Oenochroma vinaria , boasts the violaceous red "wine" colour ("rose-lie de vin" in the original description) that may have suggested to Guenée the chosen denominations of the species and of the genus. Only Oenochroma vinaria and the new species described here are intended to fall in the “ vinaria speciescomplex.” It is possible that they may group together, phylogenetically, with Oenochroma pallida and Oenochroma decolorata . However, both the definitions of infrageneric species-groups such as of the whole genus Oenochroma await an urgently needed major revision. Collection material (ANIC, ZSM, TASAG) suggests that the genus includes several other undescribed species.