''Stigmella childi'' is a species of

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

of the family

Nepticulidae Nepticulidae is a family of very small moths with a worldwide distribution. They are characterised by eyecaps over the eyes (see also Opostegidae, Bucculatricidae, Lyonetiidae). These pigmy moths or midget moths, as they are commonly known, incl ...

. It is endemic to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

and has been observed in the southern parts of the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasma ...

. This species inhabits subalpine and alpine grassland and herbfields. The larvae of this species are

leaf miner A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths ( Lepidoptera), sawflies (Symphyta, the mother clade of wasp ...

s and feed on the leaves of '' Celmisia haastii''. Adults have been observed on the wing in January.

Taxonomy

This species was first described in 1989 by Hans Donner and Christopher Wilkinson from specimens collected in

Fiordland Fiordland is a geographical region of New Zealand in the south-western corner of the South Island, comprising the westernmost third of Southland. Most of Fiordland is dominated by the steep sides of the snow-capped Southern Alps, deep lakes ...

. The male

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

specimen, collected at Lake McKenzie in the

Murchison Mountains The Murchison Mountains are a group of mountains in Fiordland National Park in New Zealand. It is the location where the South Island takahē, a type of bird presumed extinct, was rediscovered in 1948. The highest mountain is Mount Lyall at . ...

, at 1200 m altitude on the 10 January 1984 by B.H. Patrick, is held in the

New Zealand Arthropod Collection The New Zealand Arthropod Collection is a collection of terrestrial invertebrates held by Maanaki Whenua – Landcare Research in Auckland, New Zealand.http://biocol.org/institutional-collection/new-zealand-arthropod-collection It specialises i ...

Description

Donner and Wilkinson described the adult male of this species as follows: They described the adult female of the species as follows:

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand and has been observed in the South Island.

Habitat

This species inhabits subalpine and alpine grassland and herbfields, the preferred habitat of their host plant.

Behaviour

The larvae of this species mine the leaves of their host plant. Adults are on the wing in January.

Host

The larvae feed on the leaves of '' Celmisia haastii''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7616586 Nepticulidae Moths of New Zealand Endemic fauna of New Zealand Moths described in 1989 Endemic moths of New Zealand