''Sthenopis pretiosus'', the gold-spotted ghost moth, 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 ...

of the family

Hepialidae The Hepialidae are a family of insects in the lepidopteran order. Moths of this family are often referred to as swift moths or ghost moths. Taxonomy and systematics The Hepialidae constitute by far the most diverse group of the infraorder Exop ...

. It was first described by

Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is best known for creating a vast line of pinball machines and arcade games (including ''Q*bert'') throughout much of the 20th century. ...

in 1856. It can be found in found

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Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

and in the eastern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and south-eastern

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Naming history

''Sthenopis pretiosus'' was independently discovered, named and described at least three times: #It was first found in

and described by

in 1856 who called it ''Epialus pretiosus''. The type specimen of ''E. pretiosus'' has not been located. #It was also found in the north-eastern United States and south-eastern

and described by

Augustus Radcliffe Grote Augustus Radcliffe Grote (February 7, 1841 – September 12, 1903) was a British entomologist who Species description, described over 1,000 species of Lepidoptera, butterflies and moths.Osborn, H. 1937. Fragments of Entomological History. Columb ...

in 1878, who called it ''Hepialus auratus'' which become ''Sthenopis auratus''. #It was also found in

and described by Rudolf Pfitzner in 1906, who called it ''Phassus eldorado''. Later Pfitzner published an illustration of ''Phassus eldorado''. 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 ...

of ''P. eldorado'' is at the

Senckenberg Museum The Naturmuseum Senckenberg () is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its kind in Germany. In 2010, almost 517,000 people visited the museum, which is owned by the Senckenberg Nature Research S ...

in Frankfurt am Main. In 2015, Carlos G. C. Mielke and John R. Grehan concluded that ''Hepialus auratus'' Grote, 1878 and ''Phassus eldorado'' Pfitzner, 1906 are junior and subjective synonymies of ''Sthenopis pretiosus'' Herrich-Schäffer,

856 __NOTOC__ Year 856 ( DCCCLVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 15 – Emperor Michael III overthrows the regency of his mother Theodora. He appoints his uncle ...

/small>, and applied the rule of priority to change the names of ''H. auratus'' and ''P. eldorado'' to ''Sthenopis pretiosus''.

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 60–70 mm. Food plants for this species include ''

Athyrium ''Athyrium'' (lady-fern) is a genus of about 180 species of terrestrial ferns, with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is placed in the family Athyriaceae, in the order Polypodiales. Its genus name is from Greek '' a-'' ('without') and Latinized G ...

'', ''

Dryopteris :''The moth genus ''Dryopteris'' is now considered a junior synonym of ''Oreta. ''Dryopteris'' , commonly called the wood ferns, male ferns (referring in particular to ''Dryopteris filix-mas''), or buckler ferns, is a fern genus in the family Dry ...

'', and '' Matteuccia''.

Bibliography

*Kirby, W. F. 1892. ''A Synonymic Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera (Moths)''. Vol. I, Sphinges and Bombyces. — London (Guerney & Jackson), Berlin (R. Friedländer), xii + 951 pp. *Mielke, C.G.C. & Grehan, J. R. (2012): Catalogue of the Latin American Hepialidae with taxonomic remarks (Lepidoptera). ''Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo'' (N.F.)32: 131–158. *Mielke, C.G.C. & Grehan, J.R. 2016. Description of a new species of Phassus Walker, 1856 from Costa Rica, Pallas, gen. n., with a new species from Guatemala, and taxonomic notes on Sthenopis Packard,

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 ...

(Lepidoptera, Hepialidae). ''European Journal of Entomology'' 7: 113-134. *Nielsen, E. S. & Robinson, G. S. 1983. Ghost moths of southern South America (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae). ''Entomograph'' 4: 1–192. *Nielsen, E. S., Robinson, G. S. & Wagner, D. L. 2000. Ghost-moths of the world: a global inventory and bibliography of the Exoporia (Mnesarchaeoidea and Hepialoidea) (Lepidoptera). ''Journal of Natural History'', London 34: 823–878. *Robinson, G.S. & Nielsen, E. S. 1984. Hepialidae. In Heppner, J. B. (ed.), ''Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera''. Checklist: Part 1. Micropterigoidea–Immoidea. — Den Haag (W. Junk), xxvii + 112 pp. *Wagner, H. & Pfitzner, R. 1911. Hepialidae. In Aurivillius, C., & Wagner, H. (eds.), ''Lepidopterorum Catalogus'' 4. — Berlin (W. Junk), pp. 1–26.

References

External links

Hepialidae genera
Moths described in 1878 Hepialidae {{Hepialidae-stub