Idiochlora Warren

Type species: contracta Warren, N.E. Himalaya

Synonyms:

• Acrortha Warren (type species flexicosta Warren, Sri Lanka)
• Diplodesma Warren (type species celataria Walker, Sula Is., Sulawesi)
• Halophanes Warren (type species xanthochlora Swinhoe, N. India)

Prout (1934,Gross-Schmett. Erde 12: 117) included contractain his concept of Diplodesma,but did not note Idiochlora as the oldest generic name, having described Idiochlora Prout, a junior homonym (see Fletcher, 1979).

This genus is another member of the Hemithea group, with characteristic valve ornamentation in the male and setae associated with the ostium in the female. The male antennae are ciliate as in Hemithea and there are setal patches on the third sternite. The valve has a basal, thorn-like spur to the costa as in Pamphlebia but also a diagnostic double-lobed feature forming an angle at roughly the centre of the valve costa. The reversed process from the valve sacculus is usually curved, acute, thornlike. Females examined have a small bursa, short ductus and broad ostial pockets but setation within the last is often reduced or even absent. Facies in the genus is variable from *Hemithea-*like to partially transparent with a grey-clouded underside or pale green with punctate black fasciae.

The larvae, like in Hemithea, feed on flowers and young foliage of a wide range of plants. The larva of the eastern Oriental I. ussuriaria Bremer is illustrated in Sugi (1987). It is rugose, stick-like, brown and green as in some Hemithea: it lacks dorsal protruberances on the abdominal segments. It is noted as feeding on plants in the families Araliaceae, Fagaceae, Leguminosae, Rosaceae and Theaceae by Nakajima & Sato (1979).

The genus is diverse in the Oriental tropics, with a few species extending out to New Guinea and Queensland. The taxon mystica Prout is misplaced in Idiochiora as discussed in Mystichlora Gen. n.