246 
Records of the Australian Museum (2009) Vol. 61 
Heteromeringia hypoleuca D.K. McAlpine, 1960 
Figs 16, 44-46, 95 
Heteromeringia hypoleuca D.K. McAlpine, 1960: 72. 
Type material. Holotype: Queensland: Lamington National Park, 
29.x. 1955, F.A. Perkins (lg, QMBA). [not examined]. PARATYPES: 
Queensland: Laming N.P, 29.x. 1955, F.A. Perkins (1$, UQIC), Coolum, 
20.ix.1938, F.A. Perkins (1$, UQIC). 
Additional material examined. Queensland: Kirrama r.f., swept ex. 
foliage, 11 .viii. 1976, Bock & Parsons (1$, ANIC), 12.44S 143.14E, 3km 
ENE of Mt. Tozer, 28.vi-A.vii.1986, D.H. Colless (2$$, ANIC), 12.43S 
143.17E, 9km ENE of Mt. Tozer, 5-10.vii.1986, D.H. Colless (1$, ANIC), 
15.50S 145.20E, Gap Ck., 5km ESE Mt. Finnigan, Malaise Trap, D.H. 
Colless, 15.V.1981 (1$,ANIC), 14.V.1981 (lg, ANIC), 15.47S 145.14E, 
Shiptons Flat, 18.V.1981, QLD, Malaise Trap, D.H. Colless (lg, ANIC), 
Natural Bridge National Park, Numinbah, 7.vii.l978, carrion trap, S.&J. 
Peck (1$, ANIC), Mt. Glorious, l.ix-17.x,1990, Malaise, A. Hiller (lg, 
ANIC), Brisbane Forest Pk., 27°25'05"S 152°50'13"E, Malaise over creek, 
13-19.vi.1998, N. Power (lg 1$, DEBU), N QLD, 10km S of Daintree, 
25.iv.1967, D.H. Colless (lg 1$, ANIC), Whitfield Ra. Forest Reserve, 
Cairns, 19.iv.1967, D.H. Colless (2gg, ANIC; 1$, USNM), Mossman 
Gorge, 24.iv.1967 (lg, USNM), Upp. Mulgrave R., 10 m, Goldsborough 
Rd„ 9.v. 1967, D.H. Colless (1$, USNM), Mt. Edith Forest Road, 1.5 m off 
Danbulla Road, 6.v. 1967, D.H. Colless (lg, USNM), SE QLD, Tamborinae 
Mts., Eagle Heights, Palm Grove, 26.X.2002, 27.56S/153.12E, rainforest, 
Merz & Foldvari (lg, MHNG), Brisbane, Griffith Uni., Nathan Campus, 
23.X.2002, 27.33S/153.04E, dry&wet sclrophyll forest, ferns, B. Merz 
(lg, MHNG), 17.28S 145.29E, BS1, Longlands Gap, l.viii-l.ix.1995, L. 
Umback, 1150 m, FI Trap JCU (1 $, AMS), N QLD, Birthday Ck., 7 mi W 
Paluma, 15.L1970, G.A. Holloway (1 g, AMS), 18.1.1967, D. McAlpine & 
G.A. Holloway (lg, AMS), N QLD, Sum mi t Walter Hill Ra., Cardstone- 
Ravenshoe Rd., 16.L1967, D.K. McAlpine & G. Holloway (1$, AMS), 
Mulgrave R., 4 mi W of Gordonvale, 21 .v. 1966, D.K. McAlpine (1 g, AMS). 
Redescription 
Male. Body length 3.1-4.2 mm. Anepisternal disc present. 
First flagellomere orbicular. Bristles brown. Arista short 
plumose. Vibrissa relatively long and curved. Ocellar 
bristle as long as ocellar tubercle. Two long, widely spaced 
dorsocentral bristles with anterior dorsocentral near suture. 
Gena relatively vertical and small. Anteroventral margin of 
palpus sometimes lightly infuscated. Face and buccal cavity 
meeting at an angle and shiny. Head yellow with frons dark 
brown medially (excluding posterolateral corners and deep 
anteromedial emargination), and brownish around base of 
vertical bristles, first flagellomere light yellow with orange 
tint on inner-distal margin, back of head dark brown above 
foramen, occiput brown, and parafacial, face and gena 
(excluding dirty yellow ventral margin) light yellow; gena 
silvery tomentose on dorsal half; frons with small pilose 
anteromedial spot. Scutum with one pair of dorsocentral 
stripes (sometimes quite faded) connected to large spot on 
anterior margin. Scutellum yellow with lateral margin brown. 
Laterotergites brownish. Pleuron yellow with brown spot 
on proepisternum above fore coxa and with oblique orange 
to dark brown subnotal stripe. If postsutural stripes faded, 
anepisternum and anepimeron entirely dark brown. Legs 
yellow with fore tarsi white (basal two and a half tarsomeres 
dark brown), fore tibia brown laterally, mid and hind femora 
light yellow, and fore femur with brown outer-distal and 
inner-distal spots. Fore tarsi compressed laterally. Abdomen 
dark brown. M 1+2 ratio 6.0. Wing clouded along anterodistal 
margin and around cross veins (two clouds sometimes thinly 
connected). Halter white. 
Female. Externally as described for male except as follows: 
colour sometimes slightly darker and markings more 
distinct; gena sometimes brown; anteroventral margin of 
palpus infuscated; third tarsomere of fore leg entirely white; 
abdomen sometimes with yellow anterolateral spots on 
middle segments. 
Male terminalia (Figs 44-46). Epandrium small, shallow, 
relatively wide and perianal region deeply excavated. Cerci 
long, thin, tapering and emarginate. Surstylus subtriangular, 
higher than wide, setulose on outer face, and with tubercle¬ 
like bristles along apical and posterodistal margins of 
inner face. Anterior margin of hypandrium produced, and 
hypandrium+pregonite with small bare medial process and 
large, wrinkled setose posterior process (widest distally). 
Ribs of distiphallus of equal length, with one rib flared 
apically, and thick and textured subapically; with thin, 
transverse, folded apical sclerite. 
Female terminalia (Fig. 95). Ventral receptacle narrow at 
base with flagellum long, thin and straight. Spermatheca 
smooth and approximately as wide as long with apical margin 
produced on one side. 
Comments. The most widespread and frequently collected 
of the pale Heteromeringia in Australia is H. hypoleuca, 
which is found along most of the eastern coast of Queensland. 
Other pale species are found near the periphery of H. 
hypoleuca’s range to the south (H. limacens ) and the north 
(H. hypobrunnea and H. digitula). 
These other pale species can be separated from 
Heteromeringia hypoleuca by having apically to entirely 
brown (not white) fore tarsi. Heteromeringia limacens is 
further characterized by a single central notal stripe, an 
entirely (not centrally) yellow scutellum, yellow fore tibiae 
and black bristles—an unusual combination of characters 
that has allowed it to be described on the basis of females 
alone. The northern H. hypobrunnea and H. digitula are more 
similar to H. hypoleuca in having two notal stripes, but those 
of H. digitula are very thin and restricted to the postsutural 
scutum; the surstyli of H. digitula are also large and quadrate, 
making this an easily-recognized species. Heteromeringia 
hypobrunnea is almost identical in colouration to H. 
hypoleuca and may be easily confused; aside from the colour 
characters mentioned in the key (including entirely brown 
fore tarsi), H. hypobrunnea can be separated by having an 
anterior spine on the hypandrium+pregonite, a truncated 
surstylus and a recurved finger-like process on the phallus 
(the latter two are synapomorphies shared with its putative 
sister species, H. digitula ). 
