Oenochrominae

Young, Catherine J., 2006, Descriptions of the eggs of some southern Australian Geometridae (Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 1287, pp. 1-294 : 1-294

Comment on Oenochrominae sensu stricto

The eggs of Monoctenia and Oenochroma are very similar. Both are laid flat and are generally rather narrow and elliptical in shape and marked conspicuously all over by rounded concave cells with broad walls. The aeropyles in both are inconspicuous with very small to extremely small openings and a limited distribution. The chorion is coarse and tough in both speceis.

Arhodia has relatively distinctive eggs due to their upright orientation to the substrate a feature shared only with the Australian nacophorines Capusa , Palleopa and Mictodoca and various other diverse northern hemisphere species (see above). Alsophila pometaria Harris (Alsophilinae) also has upright eggs ( Salkeld 1983).

Apart from this differerence in orientation, the eggs of Arhodia share the following characteristics with the other genera. The surface is marked all over, albeit less conspicuously, with hexagonal concave cells with slightly elevated broad walls. The chorion is granular as in O. vetustaria . Unlike the other two genera the aeropyles, though inconspicuous and confined to the anterior pole, have moderately large openings. The eggs of Hypographa aristarcha Prout ( McFarland 1973) , Dinophalus drakei Prout , D. serpentaria Guenée ( McFarland 1973, 1988) with low magnification photographs, resemble the eggs of Monoctenia and Oenochroma in general shape. Unusually, Phallaria ophiusaria Guenée , also illustrated by McFarland (1973, 1988), has globular eggs that are deposited freely. The eggs of Oenochrominae s. str. bear some resemblance to the group of robust­bodied Nacophorini Fisera , Mnesampela , Paralaea , Plesanemma and Thalaina , described above. All species have eggs that are robust, marked on all surfaces with rounded to hexagonal cells and flat, inconspicuous aeropyles.