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Heterocrossa iophaea is a species of moth in the family Carposinidae. It is endemic to New Zealand.

Heterocrossa iophaea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Carposinidae
Genus:	Heterocrossa
Species:	H. iophaea
Binomial name
Heterocrossa iophaea Meyrick, 1907[1]
Synonyms[2]
Carposina iophaea (Meyrick, 1907) Heterocrossa thalamota Meyrick, 1909

Taxonomy

This species was described by Edward Meyrick in 1907 using material collected by Alfred Philpott in Invercargill.[3][2] In 1922 Meyrick classified Heterocrossa as a synonym of the genus Carposina.[4][5] George Hudson discussed and illustrated this species under the name Carposina iophaea in his 1928 publication The Butterflies and Moths of New Zealand.[6] In 1978 Elwood Zimmerman argued that the genus Heterocrassa should not be a synonym of Carposina as the genitalia of the species within the genus Heterocrassa are distinctive.[4] In 1988 John S. Dugdale assigned the species back to the genus Heterocrossa.[2] He also synonymised Heterocrossa thalamota with Heterocrossa iophaea.[2] The lectotype specimen is held at the Natural History Museum, London.[2]

Description

This species was described by Meyrick as follows:

♀. 18–19 mm. Head, palpi, and thorax dark fuscous irrorated with whitish, face and palpi internally pale ochreous, palpi 4. Abdomen grey, two basal segments whitish-ochreous. Forewings elongate, narrow, costa gently arched, apex round-pointed, termen almost straight, oblique; dark fuscous irrorated with whitish, sometimes more or less mixed with pale ochreous; a series of small dark spots along costa; tufts brownish-ochreous suffusedly edged with black and posteriorly margined with whitish, viz., two near base sometimes surrounded with ochreous suffusion, a transverse angulated series beyond 1⁄4, and five arranged round middle of disc, enclosed space sometimes blackish; a more or less defined angulated dark subterminal line: cilia rather dark fuscous irrorated with whitish. Hind-wings grey: cilia whitish-grey.[3]

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand.[1][7] As well as the type locality of Invercargill, this species has also occurred in Wyndham, in the Peel Forest in Canterbury,[8] Waiho Gorge in Westland,[8] and Puhi Puhi in Marlborough.[8] Specimens have also been collected in the North Island in locations such as at Whakapapa,[6] Whangarei,[9] Hawkes Bay,[10][11] Waimarino in the Bay of Plenty region[8] and Price's Bush in the Tararua Range.[8]

Biology and behaviour

This species is on the wing between October and February.[3] The adult moths rest on the trunks of trees or alternatively hide among the twigs and leaves on the ground.[6] The manner in which the adult moth folds its wings assists it in finding hiding places.[6] The adult moths are attracted to light.[10] They have also been collected through the beating of bush.[9]

Habitat and host species

This species is found in native forest habitat.[3][6] The larvae feed on the immature seeds of the mataī tree, Prumnopitys taxifolia.[12] As the seeds mature the larvae switch to eating the sugar-rich outer wall tissues of the seed before pupating.[12]

References

External links

• Image of lectotype specimen

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