Stigmella hakekeae is a moth of the family Nepticulidae.[2] It is endemic to New Zealand and is found in the North, South and Stewart Islands. The larvae feed on Olearia species and are leaf miners. This species pupates in a silk cocoon on the ground underneath its host plant. Adults are on the wing most months of year except for March and April. They have been observed flying during the day near their host plant. There are four or five generations per year. This species is regarded as being widely distributed and locally abundant.
Taxonomy
This species was first described in 1989 by Hans Donner and Christopher Wilkinson from specimens collected in the Taupō, Canterbury, Otago and Southland regions as well as at Stewart Island. The male holotype specimen, collected in Dunedin in November 1920, is held at Te Papa.[3]
Description
Larva of S. hakekeae.
The larvae are 3 to 4 mm long and are coloured greenish white.[3] The mine is formed in the top layer of the leaf with the mine running from a leaf rib, to the edge of the leaf and then following along that edge. It differs from the mine S. fulva as there is no purple discolouration of the leaf in the region of the egg.[3]
Donner and Wilkinson described the male and the female of this species as follows:
Head. Frontal tuft rusty white; scape white; collar cream, sometimes with brown scales; antenna grey, comprising 32 segments. Thorax grey. Forewing about 3 mm long, speckled brown-grey, with 2 obscure white postmedial areas, one at dorsum, one at costa; fringe grey. Hindwing and fringe pale grey. Abdomen grey.[3]
Distribution
This species is endemic to New Zealand.[4][1] It is found in the North, South and Stewart Islands.[3]
