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Zootaxa 3768 (4): 469–486 Article ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition)
www.mapress.com/zootaxa/
ZOOTAXA
Copyright © 2014 Magnolia Press
ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition)

http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3768.4.5
http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DBDE3685-85AC-4739-95DB-F8BA16117AAB

Revision of the Hylaea fasciaria (Linnaeus, 1758) species group in the western
Palaearctic (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Ennominae)

PASI SIHVONEN1,6, PEDER SKOU2, CLAUDIO FLAMIGNI3, GABRIELE FIUMI4 & AXEL HAUSMANN5

1Käärmekuusenpolku 4 C 11, 02880 Veikkola, Finland and Research Affairs, P.O. Box 33, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.
E-mail: pasi.sihvonen@helsinki.fi
2Aamosen 1, DK 5762 Vester Skerninge, Denmark. E-mail: info@apollobooks.dk
3Via delle Belle Arti 21, I-40126 Bologna, Italy. E-mail: claudio.flamigni@alice.it
4Via Decio Raggi 167, I-47121 Forlí, Italy. E-mail: gabfium@tiscali.it
5Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (ZSM), Münchhausenstr. 21, 81247 Munich, Germany - Bavarian Natural History Collections
(SNSB), Menzinger Str. 71, 80638 Munich, Germany. E-mail: axel.hausmann@zsm.mwn.de
6Corresponding author

Abstract

The Palaearctic Hylaea fasciaria (Linnaeus, 1758) species group is revised (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Ennominae). Four
taxa are considered valid at species level: H. fasciaria (Linnaeus, 1758), H. pinicolaria (Bellier, 1861), H. compararia
(Staudinger, 1894) and one new species, H. mediterranea, from Italy: Sicily, Calabria and Molise. The following taxo-
nomic changes are proposed: Ellopia cedricola Wehrli, 1919, from Turkey is downgraded to subspecies of Hylaea fas-
ciaria (Linnaeus, 1758) (revised status), Hylaea fasciaria cleui Leraut, 1993, from France is downgraded from subspecies
to synonymy with H. fasciaria fasciaria (Linnaeus, 1758) (new synonymy) and Ellopia compararia Staudinger, 1894,
from Algeria is raised from subspecies of Hylaea fasciaria (Linnaeus, 1758) to species status (revised status). Hemithea
squalidaria O. G. Costa, 1848 from southern Italy was placed in the genus Hylaea, but it is reverted to its original combi-
nation as its taxonomic status is uncertain. Adults, male and female genitalia and distribution maps are illustrated for all
species. DNA barcodes are presented for most taxa studied.

Key words: new species, new status, new synonymy, revised status, DNA barcode

Introduction

The geometrid genus Hylaea Hübner, 1822 has been considered to contain 13 putative species in the Palaearctic,
the Nearctic and in the Neotropical regions (Scoble 1999). This view was questioned by Pitkin (2002), who noted
that all Neotropical species placed in Hylaea appear not to belong to the genus, and true members of the genus are
restricted to the Palaearctic region. This view was not adopted by Scoble and Hausmann (2007), who listed 12
putative species; virtually the same as Scoble (1999), except removing the Mexican H. myandaria (Walker, 1860)
from the list. When Leraut (2009) proposed Pungeleria poeymiraui (Oberthür, 1922), described from Morocco, to
be transferred to Hylaea, and H. compararia to be downgraded to a subspecies of H. fasciaria (Linnaeus, 1758),
the number of putative Hylaea species is four, with few taxa whose taxonomic status is uncertain.

The species of the Palaearctic Hylaea fasciaria (Linnaeus, 1758) species group (Geometridae: Ennominae) are
diagnosable by external characters. The species are medium-sized, wingspan being about 30–40 mm. Wings are
various shades of green, red-brown to greyish, forewings have rather straight, whitish medial and postmedial lines
and hindwings have whitish postmedial line. The caterpillars are needle-mimics (illustrated for instance in Ebert
2003; Porter 2010; Lepiforum 2013), and those have been recorded to feed on conifer trees, H. fasciaria mostly on
Pinus sylvestris, Picea abies, Abies alba and on Larix (Mikkola et al. 1989, Ebert 2003) and H. pinicolaria on
Pinus laricio (Bellier 1861; Robineau 2007). Adults are nocturnal.

Three holistic views on the Palaearctic Hylaea fasciaria species group exist. Prout (1912–1916) considered

Accepted by L. F. Gall: 13 Jan. 2014; published: 27 Feb. 2014 469
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