Sabatinca aurella is a species of moth of the family Micropterigidae.[1] It is endemic to New Zealand. The larvae of this species are variable in appearance but tend to be coloured yellow-green with greyish patches. The adults of the species have a pale golden appearance with silver or purple coloured bars on the forewings. The moth has an approximate wingspan of around 1 cm. This species is found from the Coromandel Peninsula to the Fox Glacier and is on the wing from September to January. A larval host species is the liverwort Heteroscyphus lingulatus. The preferred habitat of this species is at higher altitudes than other New Zealand endemic species in this genus; and the moth tends to prefer forest or subalpine grass or scrubland.
Taxonomy
This species was first described by George Hudson in 1918.[2] Hudson used a specimen collected by R. M. Sunley at an altitude of 3000 ft in the Tararua Ranges.[2] In 1923 Edward Meyrick placed this species within the Micropardalis genus.[3] This placement was accepted by J. S. Dugdale in his 1988 publication Lepidoptera - annotated catalogue, and keys to family-group taxa.[4] However G. W. Gibbs revised this combination in 2014 and placed this species within the Sabatinca genus.[1] Meyrick had justified the placement of this species in the Micropardalis genus on the basis of wing venation.[3] However Gibbs argued that a survey of wing venation across all Sabatinca species showed that a series existed and that S. aurella formed a part of that series.[1] He therefore concluded that there was no longer any grounds for that genus distinction.[1] The female lectotype specimen is held at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.[1]
Description
Sabatinca aurella illustrated by George Hudson.
The larvae of this species are variable in appearance but tend to be coloured yellow-green with greyish patches.[1]
Hudson described the adults of this species as follows:
The expansion of the wings is 7⁄16 inch. The fore wings, which have the costa very abruptly arched at the base and the termen very oblique, are bright, golden-ochreuus with the veins well marked and deeply depressed ; there is a large crimson-orange-metallic basal patch, purple on the costa ; a curved transverse band at about 1⁄3 deep crimson-purple-metallic on the costa, metallic-blue below the middle, and crimson on the dorsum; another narrower band at about 1⁄3, deep purple on the costa, thence brilliant metallic-blue to the dorsum ; two long costal bars beyond this, purple on the costa, pale metallic-blue towards the disc ; an irregular confluent series of crimson and metallic-blue spots on the termen ; the cilia are golden-ochreous. The hind wings are blackish with strong purple reflections. The head and thorax are clothed with long rusty-orange hairs. The abdomen is blackish. The antennae are orange, black towards the apex.[2]
A "pale shining golden" species, these moths have a forewing length of between 4.2 and 5.2mm.[1] The wing patterns of S. aurella are regarded as being the most "straightforward" of New Zealand species in this genus.[5] The forewing pattern is similar to that of Sabatinca doroxena.[5]
Distribution
This species is endemic to New Zealand.[6] It is one of New Zealand's most frequently encountered jaw-moths, this species is found from as far North as the Coromandel Peninsula to as far South as Fox Glacier.[1]
Behaviour
This species is on the wing from the beginning of September until the end of January.[1] It is most common from mid-November to the end of December.[1]
Host species and habitat
Sabatinca aurella
A larval host species is the liverwort formerly known as Heteroscyphus normalis and now known as Heteroscyphus lingulatus.[7][8] This species tends to prefer forest or subalpine grasslands or shrublands habitat at a higher altitude than other New Zealand endemic species within the genus Sabatinca.[1]
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