Macarostola miniella

Macarostola miniella is a species of moth in the family Gracillariidae. It is endemic to New Zealand. This species is only found in the North Island and the adult moths have two different colour variations.

Macarostola miniella
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Gracillariidae
Genus: Macarostola
Species:
M. miniella
Binomial name
Macarostola miniella
(Felder & Rogenhofer, 1875)[1]
Synonyms
  • Stathmopoda miniella Felder & Rogenhofer, 1875
  • Gracilaria ethela Meyrick, 1880

Taxonomy

This species was first described by Baron Cajetan von Felder, Rudolf Felder and Alois Friedrich Rogenhofer in 1875 under the name Stathmopoda miniella.[2] Edward Meyrick, thinking he was describing a new species, named it Gracilaria ethela in 1880.[3] Meyrick synonymised this name with S. miniella in 1889.[4] John S. Dugdale assigned this species to the genus Macraostola in 1988.[5] The lectotype specimen is held at the Natural History Museum, London.[5]

Description

Meyrick described the species as follows:

♂︎♀︎. 11-13mm. Head yellow on crown, crimson behind, face snow-white with two pale crimson spots. Palpi white, second joint crimson. Thorax yellow, anterior margin and a posterior spot crimson. Forewings pale yellow, deeper towards inner margin; a bright crimson undulating central streak from base to apex, sometimes margined with dark fuscous above, connected with inner margin by perpendicular bars near base and at ​1⁄4, ​1⁄2, and ​3⁄4, and connected with costa at and near base ; a round crimson apical spot, containing a blackish spot towards costa, and a white triangular spot on inner margin : cilia yellow round apex, with a dark fuscous hook, crimson below apical spot, thence very pale crimson. Hindwings light crimson, cilia very pale crimson, on costa grey.[4]

The adult moths of this species come in two colour variations. The more common variation is the crimson and yellow form.[6] The other variation has more dull fuscous colouration replacing the crimson.[3]

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand.[6][7] M. miniella is common and found throughout the North Island.[6]

Behaviour and life history

The larvae of M. miniella are leaf miners that later in their development also roll the leaves of their host plant, both to feed from and then to pupate in.[6]

Habitat and host plant

This species is found in native forest habitat. The larvae are leaf miners on Syzygium maire, a tree species also endemic to New Zealand.[6][8]

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References
  1. "Global Taxonomic Database of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera)". www.gracillariidae.net. Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  2. Felder, Cajetan; Rogenhofer, Alois Friedrich (1864–1867). "Reise der österreichischen Fregatte Novara". Reise der österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde in den Jahren 1857, 1858, 1859 Unter den Befehlen des Commodore B. Von W. pt.9:Bd.2:Abt.2 (1864-1867) Atlas: Plate CXL fig 42 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  3. Meyrick, Edward (1880). "Descriptions of Australian Micro-Lepidoptera". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 5: 132–182. doi:10.5962/bhl.part.15874. hdl:2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t0js9jt3x – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  4. Meyrick, Edward (1889). "Descriptions of New Zealand Micro-Lepidoptera". Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. 21: 154–188 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  5. Dugdale, J. S. (1988). Lepidoptera - annotated catalogue, and keys to family-group taxa (PDF). Fauna of New Zealand. 14. pp. 1–269. ISBN 978-0477025188. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  6. Hoare, Robert J. B. (2014). A photographic guide to moths & butterflies of New Zealand. Ball, Olivier. Auckland: New Holland Publishers (NZ) Ltd. p. 23. ISBN 9781869663995. OCLC 891672034.
  7. "Macarostola miniella (Felder & Rogenhofer, 1875)". www.nzor.org.nz. Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd. Retrieved 2018-01-15.
  8. "PlantSynz - Invertebrate herbivore biodiversity assessment tool: Database". plant-synz.landcareresearch.co.nz. Retrieved 2018-07-22.
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