My app uses Theme.Holo. When I instantiate an ExpandableListView, it uses white icons for the group rows. (in the image, the icon is visible in the first row because I am pressing this row to highlight it, the other rows have invisibly white icons).
I know I can set the group icon with ExpandableListView.setGroupIndicator(), but I would rather specify to use a dark version of the OS icon, if this is possible?

You will need to change the default group indicator in this case. A light or dark indicator are just different icons anyway. Without changing the theme, the only way is to change the icons/drawables for the indicator.