Heliostibes vibratrix

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Heliostibes vibratrix
Fig 21 MA I437911 TePapa Plate-L-The-butterflies full (cropped).jpg
Illustration by George Hudson
Scientific classification
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H. vibratrix
Binomial name
Heliostibes vibratrix
Meyrick, 1927 [1]

Heliostibes vibratrix is a species of moth in the family Oecophoridae. [1] [2] It is endemic to New Zealand. This species inhabits open mountainside habitat and is known to feed on Nothofagus truncata. Yellow-crowned parakeets predate the larvae of H. vibratrix.

Contents

Taxonomy

This species was described by Edward Meyrick in 1927 using a specimen collected by George Hudson in January at Mount Arthur at 4000 ft. [3] The female holotype specimen is held at the Natural History Museum, London. [1]

Description

Meyrick described the species as follows:

♀ 16 mm. Head and palpi fuscous. Thorax rather darker bronzy-fuscous. Abdomen dark fuscous, ventral surface pale yellow. Forewings suboblong, termen hardly oblique; fuscous, with numerous irregular transverse cloudy dark purplish-fuscous striae; second discal stigma forming a small transverse dark fuscous spot; two slight whitish marks on dorsum about middle: cilia fuscous. Hindwings blackish-grey; cilia grey, basal third dark fuscous. [3]

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand. [4]

Habitat and host species

Nothofagus truncata, a host species of H. vibratrix. Nothofagus truncata 143661809.jpg
Nothofagus truncata, a host species of H. vibratrix.

This species prefers open mountainside habitat. [5] The larvae of this species are known to feed on Nothofagus truncata . [6] [7] Larvae are a predated by the Yellow-crowned parakeet. [8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Dugdale , J. S. (23 September 1988). "Lepidoptera - annotated catalogue, and keys to family-group taxa". Fauna of New Zealand. 14. Department of Scientific and Industrial Research: 88. doi:10.7931/J2/FNZ.14. ISSN   0111-5383. Wikidata   Q45083134.
  2. "Heliostibes vibratrix Meyrick, 1927". nzinverts.landcareresearch.co.nz. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  3. 1 2 E. Meyrick (1927). "Descriptions of New Zealand Lepidoptera". Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. 57: 702. ISSN   1176-6158. Wikidata   Q109466895.
  4. "Heliostibes vibratrix Meyrick, 1927". www.nzor.org.nz. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  5. Hudson, G. V. (1928), The butterflies and moths of New Zealand, Illustrator: George Hudson, Wellington: Ferguson and Osborn Limited, p. 307, LCCN   88133764, OCLC   25449322, Wikidata   Q58593286
  6. Wardle, Peter (1991). Vegetation of New Zealand. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 567. ISBN   0-521-25873-1. OCLC   26504843.
  7. G. P. Hosking; J. A. Hutcheson (April 1986). "Hard beech (Nothofagus truncata) decline on the Mamaku Plateau, North Island, New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Botany. 24 (2): 263–269. doi:10.1080/0028825X.1986.10412676. ISSN   0028-825X. Wikidata   Q109478076.
  8. Terry C. Greene (1998). "Foraging Ecology of the Red-Crowned Parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae novaezelandiae) and Yellow-Crowned Parakeet (C. auriceps auriceps) on Little Barrier Island, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Ecology . 22 (2): 161–171. ISSN   0110-6465. JSTOR   24054688. Wikidata   Q109478236.