Genus Euricania Melichar
Euricania ocellus (Walker)
from Taiwan
Genus Euricania Melichar 1898a: 393
Type
species: Pochazia ocellus Walker 1851, designated by Distant 1906c
Known species: Numerous species from the far eastern Palaearctic (China, Japan), Oriental and Australasian regions from India to the Solomon Islands. Three species are recorded from Australia, E. fusconebulosa (Lallemand) from NT, E. pedicellata (Jacobi) from WA and a dubious record of E. discigutta (Walker) from "North Australia".
Notes: The single record of E.
discigutta (as E. cyanescens by Le
Guillou 1841), from
“North Australia” was collected during a circumnavigation of the world. Locality
records of this age from such excursions are notably unreliable. No further specimens of
the species have been found in Australia although the presence of the species in New
Guinea and neighbouring parts of Indonesia and the Pacific indicates that more intensive
surveys of northern Australia may confirm its presence here.
The other two species recorded in Australia were transferred to Euricania
by Fletcher (2008) on the basis of the long stem
uniting R1 and Rs well beyond the basal cell, the diagnostic feature of the genus as
defined by Melichar (1898a,
1923). However, the
Australian species placed in other genera such as Ricania may reveal additional
species that should be placed here. A revision of the genus is also needed to confirm that
this venational feature is indeed diagnostic.