Polysoma eumetalla ( Meyrick, 1880 ), 2025

Prins, Jurate De, Hartley, Diana, Sruoga, Virginijus, Nicholls, James, Wallace, Jesse & Zwick, Andreas, 2025, Diversity of Australian Ornixolinae (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) with taxonomic and nomenclatural acts within the related taxa (Acrocercopinae and Gracillariinae) based on the evidence of museomics, bionomics, and mitogenomics, Zootaxa 5616 (1), pp. 1-340 : 247

Polysoma eumetalla ( Meyrick, 1880)

( Figs 519–524, 637)

“ Grac.[ilaria] eumetalla , n. sp. ”—Meyrick, E., 1880. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 5 (1): 160. https:// www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/6455825

Note: transferred to Polysoma by Nielsen & Kumata (1996: 48).

Conopomorpha eumetalla — Meyrick, 1907: 57

Acrocercops eumetalla — Dugdale 1988: 71; Common 1990: Fig. 20–17; Turner 1913: 178.

Polysoma eumetalla — Nielsen & Kumata 1996: 48; De Prins & De Prins 2005: 366; Hoare et al. 2019: 65.

Type locality: [ Australia, Queensland], Brisbane.

Type specimens: Lectotype ♂, BMNH(E) 1055711, NHMUK (London), designated by Dugdale (1988: 71); 3 Paralectotypes ♂, ♀, in NHMUK (London).

Specimens examined: Lectotype ♂ ( Fig.519): with the abdomen, [labels verbatim] [1] ‘Brisbane/ Queensland /29/9/79 [29 September 1879]’; [2] ‘Meyrick Coll./B.M. 1938-290’; [3] ‘Lectotype’; [4] ‘ eumetalla Meyr. ’; [5] ‘BMNH(E) 1055711’; [6] ‘ Acrocercops / eumetalla /6/1 Meyr./E. Meyrick det./in Meyrick Coll.’, in NHMUK (London).

Paralectotype ♀: with the abdomen [labels verbatim] [1] ‘Sydney/N.S. Wales [New South Wales]/26/10/79 [26 October 1879]’; [2] ‘Meyrick Coll./B.M. 1938-290’; [3] ‘Paralectotype’; [4] ‘ Acrocercops / eumetalla /6/3 Meyr./E. Meyrick det./in Meyrick Coll.’;[5] ‘BMNH(E) 1406955’ in NHMUK (London).

Taxonomic note: both Australian species Polysoma eumetalla and Conopomorpha heliopla Meyrick, 1907 are very similar and variable in their wing pattern, body colouration and shine. The habitus of the type specimens of both species-group names is extremely similar. We placed the specimens deposited in the ANIC collection to Polysoma eumetalla because the lectotype of this species, designated by Dugdale (1988: 71) refers to the Australian continental type locality in Queensland: Brisbane. The type locality of C. heliopla is on the island of Tasmania. Nonetheless, we recorded specimens in the collection that we identified as P. eumetalla collected in Tasmania. The molecular data based on long DNA full mitogenomic sequences present clear evidence of P. eumetalla as one widely distributed species across Australia and Tasmania feeding on Acacia spp. Based on the morphological, bionomical and molecular evidence and following the Principle of Priority of the ICZN (Art. 23.1) we transfer C. heliopla Meyrick, 1907 to the genus Polysoma and synonymise herewith Conopomorpha heliopla Meyrick, 1907 syn. nov. with Gracillaria eumetalla Meyrick, 1880 .