Genus Palleopa Walker, 1866

Museums

Regional Maps

• Palleopa Walker, F. 1866. Supplement 5. List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum 35: 1534-2040 [incl. Summary and Index to parts 31-35] [1955].

  Type species:

   Palleopa innotata Walker, 1866 by monotypy.
• Nyctilampes Goldfinch, G.M. 1944. Notes on Australian Boarmiidae and Oenochromidae (Lepidoptera) with descriptions of new species. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 69: 189-197 [169].

  Type species:

   Nyctilampes funerea Goldfinch, 1944 by original designation.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• McQuillan, P.B. & Edwards, E.D. 1996. Geometridae. pp. 200-228 in Nielsen, E.S., Edwards, E.D. & Rangsi, T.V. (eds). Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia. Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 4 xiv 529 pp. & CD-ROM. [204] (Nyctilampes)

Introduction

Palleopa innotata Walker 1866 was not previously recognised in Australian collections (McQuillan & Edwards 1996). Collectors resident in south eastern Australia between 1870 and 1930 such as E. Meyrick, E. Guest, W. Barnard, G. H. Raynor, O. B. Lower, G. Lyell and A. J. Turner all failed to collect or recognise the species and it has not previously been illustrated. Palleopa Walker was originally placed in the family Noctuidae (Walker 1866) and the holotype was claimed to be lost by Swinhoe (1900). However, the holotype is a specimen from the Saunders Collection and has now been located in the Natural History Museum, London.

Moths of the genus Palleopa are large, structurally-generalised geometrids superficially similar to more common taxa, especially Paralaea Guest (1887) but are not as geographically widespread in Australia. Adults are active during summer and autumn in the eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia, where their larvae presumably feed in the canopy during the austral winter and early spring. The nomenclature of the genus was clarified by McQuillan and Edwards (1996).

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

Palleopa innotata occurs in many eucalypt-dominant habitats in south eastern Australia south of latitude 28° S, including the New England Plateau and to the treeline in subalpine regions of the south-east. This is broadly the eastern part of the extensive Bassian biogeographical zone which spans southern Australia. The seasonal spread of rainfall may be an important factor in its distribution. Palleopa is not found in those parts of southern Australia with a pronounced Mediterranaean-type climate featuring strong summer drought and variably timed autumn break, being associated instead with areas of seasonally even rainfall or summer-dominant rainfall. Consequently it lacks the pupal aestivation characteristic of many Bassian ennomines which occur in the hotter parts of southern Australia.

Australian Endemic.

Diagnosis

Adult Palleopa are best differentiated from related geometrid genera by the following features: head with crown bearing an erect rounded projection behind antennal socket [a smaller one is present in Fisera Walker 1866, a larger thorn-like process present in Paralaea Guest 1887 (McQuillan et al. 2001) but is absent in Plesanemma McQuillan 1984, Mnesampela Guest 1887, Niceteria Turner 1929 and Nisista Walker 1860]; dorsal margin of valva with a subapical projection; furca absent; vesica with ornamentation including a stout blade comprising of 3 fused long spines; ductus bursae asymmetrically dilated, sclerotised and beset with long spines on right side anterior to colliculum (Paralaea also has an asymmetrically dilated ductus bursae just below the colliculum, however the ductus bursae is plicate and spines present in this area are smaller and much less in number) (McQuillan et al. 2001); upright eggs [also characteristic of Capusa Walker 1857)\ and Mictodoca Meyrick 1892]; labrum of late instar larvae strongly deflexed (Figs 4,5,30); large planta of prolegs A6 in late instar larvae, distally elongated parallel to the body axis; A6, claspers of late instar larvae with supernumery crochets (Figs 4,5,30). The strongly deflexed labrum in the L5 larva may be diagnostic among the large southern Australian ennomines.

Diagnosis References

McQuillan, P.B., Young, C.J. & Richardson, A.M.M. 2001. A revision of the Australian moth genus Paralaea Guest (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 15: 277–317

Young, C.J. & McQuillan, P.B. 2001. Redescription of the little-known Australian geometrid moth Palleopa innotata Walker, 1866 (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae). Insect Systematics and Evolution 32: 263–278

General References

McQuillan, P.B. & Edwards, E.D. 1996. Geometridae. pp. 200-228 in Nielsen, E.S., Edwards, E.D. & Rangsi, T.V. (eds). Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia. Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing Vol. 4 xiv 529 pp. & CD-ROM.

Swinhoe, C. 1900. Catalogue of Eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the Collection of the Oxford University Museum. Part 2. Noctuina, Geometrina and Pyralidina. Pteropophoridae and Tineina by Right Hon. Lord Wasingham and John Hartley Durrant. Oxford : Claredon Press (a) vi+630 pp., 8 pls.

Walker, F. 1866. Supplement 5. List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum 35: 1534-2040 [incl. Summary and Index to parts 31-35]

History of changes