''Archyala culta'' is a species of

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

in the family

Tineidae Tineidae is a family of moths in the order Lepidoptera described by Pierre André Latreille in 1810. Collectively, they are known as fungus moths or tineid moths. The family contains considerably more than 3,000 species in more than 300 genera. ...

. This species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. It is classified as "Data Deficient" by the

Department of Conservation Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

. This species has only been collected at

Opoho Ōpoho is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It sits on the western flank of Signal Hill, to the northeast of the city centre, overlooking North East Valley and the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. Etymology Ōpoho takes its name from th ...

and is only known from its type specimen.

Taxonomy

This species was described by

Alfred Philpott Alfred Philpott (15 December 1870 – 24 July 1930) was a New Zealand museum curator, entomologist and writer. He was born in Tysoe, Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in ...

in 1931 from a specimen collected by Charles E. Clarke at Opoho,

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

on the 17 December 1921. In 1939

George Hudson George Hudson (probably 10 March 1800 – 14 December 1871) was an English railway financier and politician who, because he controlled a significant part of the Railway Mania, railway network in the 1840s, became known as "The Railway King"—a ...

discussed and illustrated the species. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

specimen is held at the

Auckland War Memorial Museum The Auckland War Memorial Museum (), also known as Auckland Museum, is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building constructed in the 1920s and 1950s, stands on Observatory ...

Description

Philpott described the species as follows: Hudson stated that this species could be distinguished by the peculiar outline of the costa of fore-wings, and absence of any tendency for the strigulae to coalesce in pairs.

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand. This species is only known from its type specimen and at its type locality of Opoho.

Life history

It has been hypothesised that larvae of this species inhabits dead wood, boring into it and feeding on it.

Conservation status

This species has been classified as having the "Data Deficient" conservation status under the

New Zealand Threat Classification System The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand. The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had s ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q13391883 Moths described in 1931 Tineidae Moths of New Zealand Taxa named by Alfred Philpott Endemic moths of New Zealand