Characterization of Phyllocladus Blair

Like males of Dendroides, those of Phyllocladus sometimes have large compound eyes, more closely approximate dorsally than some other pyrochroine genera (e.g., Fig. 12). However, in cranial structure and form of the abdominal apex and male genitalia, Phyllocladus is more closely related to the Asian endemic, Pseudodendroides Blair (Young 1999).

In proposing the generic name Phyllocladus (from the Greek root, phyllo - meaning “a leaf” and the Greek, cladus, “a branch”), Blair was clearly struck by the unusual form of the antennae of males. However, this feature alone is not diagnostic, as a similar modification is exhibited by males of Pseudopyrochroa antennalis (Blair). Phyllocladus was also characterized by its head (Blair 1914:315): “… elongate with the frontal sculpture of the 3 of a different type from that usual in the family, taking the form of two longitudinal subcontinuous depressions.” He also noted that the antennal pedicel is elongate.

Young (1999, 2004a, 2005) observed that the parameres of Phyllocladus, like those of Pseudodendroides Blair, Neopyrochroa Blair, and Himalapyrochroa Young are short and widely separated for approximately half their length. Males of Phyllocladus, Pseudodendroides and Himalapyrochroa also have the apical margin of the sixth abdominal ventrite widely emarginate and conspicuously concave. The cranial apparatus exhibited by males of Phyllocladus is unlike that of Himalapyrochroa, but the complex is fairly similar between males of some Phyllocladus and males of Pseudodendroides. Both genera also have similarly elongate antennal scapes and pedicels. However, males of Pseudodendroides do not have lamelliform antennal flagellomeres.