Hemithea spp. - -

Taxonomic Information

Rather small Geometrinae with wingspan of ~30 mm. Numerous similar members of the genus Hemithea Duponchel, 1829 are found in India. Holloway (1996) writes "Members of the [tritonaria] complex are only reliably separated by examination of the male genitalia."
 

Hemithea Duponchel, 1829 species known from India are listed. 

Hemithea antigrapha Prout, 1917. Khasi Hills, Meghalaya.

Hemithea aquamarina Hampson, 1895. Dharamsala, Khasis.

Hemithea himachalensis Walia, 2000. Himachal Pradesh (Nauni).
Hemithea insularia (Guenée, [1858]). Indian subregion.

Hemithea marina (Butler, 1878). Indian subregion.

Hemithea melalopha Prout, 1931. Khasi Hills, Meghalaya.

Hemithea ochrolauta (Warren, 1894). Uttarakhand, Nagaland; Bhutan. 

Hemithea tritonaria (Walker, 1863). Khasis, Nilgiris, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu.

Hemithea wuka (Pagenstecher, 1886). Nilgiris. 


Hemithea insularia profecta Prout, 1933. Listed as synonym of Hemithea melalopha in MOB. But Plotkin et al. 2020 lists both Hemithea insularia and Hemithea melalopha as valid species in their checklist of Geometrinae. 


There are reports of Hemithea costipunctata (Moore [1868]) from India (Sondhi et al. 2016; Dey et al. 2018), but Lepindex treats Hemithea costipunctata as a synonym of Hemithea marina (Butler, 1878) and Plotkin et al. 2020 do not list Hemithea costipunctata as a valid species in their global checklist of Geometrinae. 

Photo Gallery and Species Biology

StateJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecNo date
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Andhra Pradesh1
Arunachal Pradesh5111
Assam
Bihar
Chandigarh11
Chhattisgarh1
Dadra & Nagar Haveli
Daman & Diu
Delhi
Goa11
Gujarat12
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh11
Jammu and Kashmir1
Jharkhand
Karnataka221
Kerala11211111
Lakshadweep
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra112
Manipur
Meghalaya6
Mizoram
Nagaland
Odisha
Paschimbanga1
Pondicherry
Punjab
Rajasthan
Sikkim1
Tamil Nadu1
Tripura1
Uttar Pradesh
Uttarakhand112
West Bengal1
Total229656534434
Hemithea spp.: Vachellia nilotica, Flemingia macrophylla, Cajanus cajan (Fabaceae), Glycosmis pentaphylla (Rutaceae), Lantana camara, Tectona grandis (Lamiaceae), Memecylon edule (Melastomataceae), Malus pumila (Rosaceae), Quercus serrata, Quercus acutissima (Fagaceae), Hevea brasiliensis, Excoecaria (Euphorbiaceae), Mangifera indica (Anacardiaceae) (Robinson et al. 2010)
  1. Hampson, G. F. 1895. The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma. Moths, Vol.3. Taylor & Francis, London. Noctuidae (cont.) to Geometridae 546 p - 226 figs.
  2. Walia, V.K. 2000. On a new species of genus Hemithea Duponchel (Geometrinae: Geometridae: Lepidoptera) from Nauni and Chandigarh. Geobios, 27(4), pp. 191- 193.
  3. Sondhi, Y. & S. Sondhi. 2016. A partial checklist of moths (Lepidoptera) of Dehradun, Mussoorie and Devalsari in Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(5): 8756–8776; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/jott.2814.8.5.8756-8776. [accessed 11 August 2021]
  4. Dey, P. Joshi, K. & V. P. Uniyal. 2018. Common Moths of WII. WIldlife Institute of India, Dehradun. 
  5. Kirti, J. S., K. Chandra, A. Saxena & N. Singh. 2019. Geometrid Moths of India. 296 pp. Nature Books of India, New Delhi. 

Page citation

Anonymous 2024. Hemithea spp. - – . In Sondhi, S., Y. Sondhi, R.P. Singh, P. Roy and K. Kunte (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 3.72. Published by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies. URL: https://www.mothsofindia.org/hemithea-spp, accessed 2024/03/28.