Genus Dirce L.B. Prout, 1910

Museums

Regional Maps

• Dirce Prout, L.B. 1910. Lepidoptera Heterocera. Fam. Geometridae. Introduction - Subfam. Brephinae. Genera Insectorum 103: 1-16, pl. 1 [12] [replacement name for Oenone Meyrick, 1890].
• Oenone Meyrick, E. 1890. Revision of Australian Lepidoptera. III. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 2-n.s. 4(4): 1117-1216 [year of publication not confirmed] [1194] [junior homonym of Oenone Lamarck, 1818 (Vermes)].

  Type species:

   Oenone lunaris Meyrick, 1890 by original designation, see Prout, L.B. 1910. Geometridae. Subfam. Oenochrominae. Genera Insectorum 104: 1-120, pls 1, 2 [11].

 

Introduction

Dirce lunaris and D. solaris are sympatric and the caterpillars feed on the same host plant, the alpine shrub Epacris serpyllifolia R. Br. (Epacridaceae) over autumn. Adults fly in late spring to mid-summer and D. lunaris is usually present in far greater numbers than the rarer D. solaris. The moths of these species occur in alpine heathland in the Tasmanian highlands; however the known distribution of D. solaris is more limited, possibly due to under-collection. Superficially the moths are of the same size, have cryptically coloured forewings and flash colouration on the hindwings. The hindwings of D. lunaris are white encircled by a dark grey band; whereas the centre of the hindwings of its sister species is a bright yellow, similar to the wing colouration of their congener Dirce aesiodora. Dirce oriplancta also flies in early summer. It appears to be limited in distribution to Mt Field in southern Tasmania although this is most likely an artefact of under-collection. The larvae of Dirce oriplanctafeed on Epacris serpyllifolia during the autumn months. This species lacks the flash colouration present on the hindwings of lunaris and solaris. Adults are rapid and low flying. The moths of all species of Dirce rest with the forewings completely covering the hindwings and folded planiform above the body (Young 2006).
Tribal placement of genus to Ennominae: Diptychini by Murillo-Ramos et al. (2019), based on arguments by Young (2006).

 

Distribution

States

Tasmania

Extra Distribution Information

Australian Endemic.

General References

Murillo-Ramos, L., Brehm, G., Sihvonen, P., Hausmann, A., Holm, S., Reza Ghanavi, H., Õunap, E., Truuverk, A., Staude, H., Friedrich, E., Tammaru, T. & Wahlberg, N. 2019. A comprehensive molecular phylogeny of Geometridae (Lepidoptera) with a focus on enigmatic small subfamilies. PeerJ 7: e7386 [19-20] (Accessed 12 Aug 2020.)

Young, C.J. 2006. Molecular relationships of the Australian Ennominae (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) and implications for the phylogeny of the Geometridae from molecular and morphological data. Zootaxa 1264: 1–147

 

History of changes

Published	As part of group	Action Date	Action Type	Compiler(s)
21-Feb-2022	GEOMETROIDEA	04-Dec-2021	MODIFIED	Dr Cathy Byrne (TMAG) Di Moyle (TMAG)
21-Feb-2022		20-Feb-2011	MOVED
21-Feb-2022		22-Nov-2010	MOVED
		26-May-2010	MODIFIED