''Stathmopoda campylocha'' 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

Stathmopodidae Stathmopodidae is a family of moths in the moth Taxonomic rank, superfamily Gelechioidea described by Edward Meyrick in 1913. Taxonomy and systematics *''Actinoscelis'' Meyrick, 1912 *''Aeoloscelis'' Meyrick, 1897 *''Arauzona'' Walker,

865 __NOTOC__ Year 865 ( DCCCLXV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * King Louis the German divides the East Frankish Kingdom among his three sons. Carloman receives Bavaria (with more l ...

*' ...

. It 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 ...

to New Zealand. It is classified as critically endangered 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, ...

Taxonomy

This species was first described by

Edward Meyrick Edward Meyrick (25 November 1854 – 31 March 1938) was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern microlepidoptera systematics. Life and work Ed ...

in 1889 using specimens collected in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

and

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 ...

in January. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

specimen is held at the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum (Lo ...

and the type locality is recorded as being "Dunedin, New Zealand".

Description

Meyrick described the species as follows:

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand. Historically this species occurred at

and

, and in 1915 Charles E. Clarke collected a specimen in mid December at Silverstream,

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt () is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. History Upper Hutt is in an area originally known as Orongo ...

. A further specimen was collected in early February in 1932 in the Pohangina Forest Reserve and was used by

George Vernon Hudson George Vernon Hudson FRSNZ (20 April 1867 – 5 April 1946) was a British-born New Zealand entomologist credited with proposing the modern daylight saving time. He was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal in 1923. Biography Born in London, E ...

to create an illustration of the species. In more recent times ''S. campylocha'' has been found to be present in western and eastern

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

including in the

Matukituki Valley The Matukituki River is a short braided river in the Southern Alps (New Zealand), Southern Alps of New Zealand's South Island. Both its West Branch and East Branch originate from the Main Divide mountain ranges near Mount Aspiring / Tititea. Th ...

Ecology and habitat

Meyrick collected his specimens amongst forest and Hudson concurred that the species frequents forest habitat.

Host species

In 2000 Brian H. Patrick discovered that ''S. campylocha'' is associated with the nationally endangered plant '' Olearia hectorii''. Patrick was unable to locate ''S. campylocho'' larvae feeding but he hypothesised that they are likely

detritivore Detritivores (also known as detrivores, detritophages, detritus feeders or detritus eaters) are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus (decomposing plant and animal parts as well as feces). There are many kinds of invertebrates, ...

s or alternatively that they feed on

scale insect Scale insects are small insects of the Order (biology), order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient g ...

s. He also suggested other possible host plants might be '' Olearia fimbriata'', '' Olearia lineata'', '' Olearia bullata'' or '' Olearia fragrantissima''.Plant-SyNZ
indicates ''

Olearia virgata ''Olearia'', most commonly known as daisy-bush, is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Asteraceae, the largest of the flowering plant families in the world. Olearia are found in Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand. The genus i ...

'' as another possible host plant, attributed to Patrick (2000).

Conservation status

In 1939 Hudson stated that ''S. campylocha'' was regarded as being extremely rare. This species has been given the "Nationally Critical" 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

External links

Hudson's 1939 illustration of ''S. campylocha''. Plate LX, Fig. 5.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q14382651 Moths described in 1889 Stathmopodidae Taxa named by Edward Meyrick Moths of New Zealand Endemic fauna of New Zealand Endangered biota of New Zealand Endemic moths of New Zealand