Trachypepla amphileuca

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Trachypepla amphileuca
Trachypepla amphileuca 165244709.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Oecophoridae
Genus: Trachypepla
Species:
T. amphileuca
Binomial name
Trachypepla amphileuca
Meyrick, 1914 [1]

Trachypepla amphileuca is a species of moth in the family Oecophoridae. [2] It is endemic to New Zealand and has been observed in the North Island. This species inhabits native forest. Adults are on the wing from October to January and are attracted to light. The wing pattern of T. amphileuca is said to imitate the appearance of bird droppings.

Contents

Taxonomy

This species was first described in 1914 by Edward Meyrick and named Trachypepla amphileuca using a specimen collected in Wainuiomata by George Hudson in December. [3] [1] In 1928 George Hudson discussed and illustrated this species in his book The butterflies and moths of New Zealand. [4] The male holotype specimen is held at the Natural History Museum, London. [1]

Description

Illustration by G. Hudson. Fig 9 MA I437892 TePapa Plate-XXXI-The-butterflies full (cropped).jpg
Illustration by G. Hudson.

Meyrick described the adult male of the species as follows:

♂. 16 mm. Head fuscous. Palpi dark fuscous sprinkled with whitish. Antennal ciliations 1. Thorax white, anterior margin narrowly dark fuscous. Abdomen light grey, anal tuft whitish-ochreous. Fore wings elongate, rather narrow, costa moderately arched, apex obtuse, termen very obliquely rounded ; white, with a very faint ochreous tinge ; a dark-fuscous wedge-shaped spot along basal sixth of costa ; a broad direct transverse dark-grey band occupying median third, anterior edge slightly concave, posterior slightly convex and somewhat excavated above middle ; within this band are two tufts almost on anterior edge representing first discal and plical stigmata, and a crescentic transverse white dark-edged mark towards posterior edge ; a suffused grey patch towards lower part of termen, touching tornus  ; a small black apical spot, preceded by a large black dot on costa and three on termen : cilia grey, round apex with base white. Hindwings grey ; cilia pale grey, darker towards base. [3]

Hudson was of the opinion that the wing pattern of T. amphileuca imitates the appearance of bird droppings. [4]

Distribution

Habitat near Wainuiomata, type locality of this species. Wainuiomata river and swimming hole.jpg
Habitat near Wainuiomata, type locality of this species.

This species is endemic to New Zealand and has been observed in the North Island. [5] [6] It has been observed or collected in the Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Waikato and Auckland regions. [7] It has previously been regarded as scarce in the Hawkes Bay although in more recently published literature this species is said to be common in Albany, Auckland. [8] [9]

Habitat

T. amphileuca inhabits native forest. [4]

Behaviour

Adults have been observed on the wing from October to January. [7] Adults are attracted to light and have been collected using light traps. [8]

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<i>Trachypepla protochlora</i> Species of moth endemic to New Zealand

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<i>Trachypepla spartodeta</i> Species of moth endemic to New Zealand

Trachypepla spartodeta is a moth of the family Oecophoridae first described by Edward Meyrick in 1883. It is endemic to New Zealand and has been collected in both the North and South Islands. This species inhabits native forest and adults are on the wing from November to January.

References

  1. 1 2 3 John Stewart Dugdale (23 September 1988). "Lepidoptera - annotated catalogue, and keys to family-group taxa". Fauna of New Zealand. Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. 14: 106. doi:10.7931/J2/FNZ.14. ISSN   0111-5383. Wikidata   Q45083134.
  2. ↑ Gordon, Dennis P., ed. (2010). New Zealand inventory of biodiversity: Kingdom animalia : chaetognatha, ecdysozoa, ichnofossils. Vol. 2. p. 462. ISBN   978-1-877257-93-3. OCLC   973607714. OL   25288394M. Wikidata   Q45922947.
  3. 1 2 Edward Meyrick (1914). "Descriptions of New Zealand Lepidoptera". Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. 46: 107–108. ISSN   1176-6158. Wikidata   Q98606535.
  4. 1 2 3 George Vernon Hudson (1928), The butterflies and moths of New Zealand, Illustrator: George Hudson, Wellington, p. 284, OCLC   25449322, Wikidata   Q58593286
  5. ↑ "Trachypepla amphileuca Meyrick, 1914". www.nzor.org.nz. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
  6. ↑ "Trachypepla amphileuca Meyrick, 1914". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  7. 1 2 "Trachypepla amphileuca". iNaturalist. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  8. 1 2 T. H. Davies (January 1973). "LIST OF LEPIDOPTERA COLLECTED IN AREAS SURROUNDING HASTINGS AND NAPIER" (PDF). New Zealand Entomologist. 5 (2): 204–216. doi:10.1080/00779962.1973.9723002. ISSN   0077-9962. Wikidata   Q54755566. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2013.
  9. ↑ Alan Emmerson; Robert Hoare (28 October 2019). "Lepidoptera from Redvale, Albany, north of Auckland, New Zealand, 2004-2016: an annotated list". The Wētā. 53: 43–70. ISSN   0111-7696. Wikidata   Q105342215.
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