''Urania sloanus'', or Sloane's urania, was a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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

Uraniidae The Uraniidae are a family (biology), family of moths containing four subfamily (biology), subfamilies, 90 genera, and roughly 700 species. The family is distributed throughout the tropics of the Americas, Africa and Indo-Australia.Carter, David ...

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 ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. It was last reported in 1894 or 1895,Lees, D.C. & Smith, N.G. (1991)
"Foodplants of the Uraniinae (Uraniinae) and their Systematic, Evolutionary and Ecological Significance"
''Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society''. 45: 297-347. Retrieved August 3, 2015. but possibly survived until at least 1908.Vinciguerra, R. (2009). "Osservazioni su ''Urania sloanus'' (Cramer, 1779) (Lepidoptera: Uraniidae)". ''SHILAP Revista de Lepidopterología''. 37 (147): 1-6.Lees, D.C. (2010)

April 16, 2010. Archived from th

February 21, 2015. The species was first described by

Pieter Cramer Pieter Cramer (21 May 1721 (baptized) – 28 September 1776) was a wealthy Netherlands, Dutch merchant in linen and Spanish wool, remembered as an entomologist. Cramer was the director of the Zealand Society, a scientific society located in Flushin ...

in 1779. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''sloanus'' honours

Sir Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector. He had a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British ...

(1660–1753), an English collector whose collection became the foundation of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Description

This

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

''Urania'' species was black with

iridescent Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear gradually to change colour as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Iridescence is caused by wave interference of light in microstruc ...

red, blue and green markings. The iridescent parts of the wings do not have pigment; as determined by optical analysis on the species ''Urania fulgens'' belonging to the same genus. The color originates from

refraction In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one transmission medium, medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commo ...

of light by the ribbon-like

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

covering the moth's wings. ''Urania sloanus'' is considered "the most spectacular ''Urania'' species". As most species of the subfamily

Uraniinae (1) Use ''Endospermum'' as a food plant.(2) Use ''Omphalea'' as a food plant and adults are diurnal. ''Urapterita'' is not included for lack of data. The Uraniinae or uraniine moths are a subfamily of moths in the family (biol ...

, it was a day-flying moth while most moths are active at night; its bright colors

advertised Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of interest to consumers. It is typically used ...

, as a warning, the fact that it was also toxic. "Urania sloanus species had orange and green neon coloring spread through its wings" (Smith, 1991). These components facilitate the future discovery of the species if they are found to still be existing. The vibrant coloring makes the species easily identifiable to researchers and ecologists studying the species.

Extinction

Based on current knowledge of extant uraniine species, it is likely that Sloane's urania migrated between patches of host plants, after population explosions locally defoliated them. This probably required relatively large, intact areas of lowland forest.(2004
''Urania sloanus''
i

o

Retrieved October 6, 2007.

Habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

when Jamaica's lowland rainforests were cleared and converted to agricultural land during the colonial era may have contributed to its extinction, although large parts of primary forest still remain. This specific species of moths experienced a decline in their population because of a drastic change in environmental components. Like other members of the genus ''Urania'', periodic swarms of moths were separated by years of great scarcity. The U. sloanus species faced significant threats that imposed less than sustainable environments for the species survival. U. sloanus species experienced the loss of their main larval host through

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

this was directly linked to abrupt agricultural changes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters (Nazari, 2016). As the question of why did this species become extinct is further examined, we can conclude that the species was forced into unsustainable and unadaptable conditions that would inevitably lead to a loss in the overall population and survival rates of the species.

References

7. Nazari, V., Schmidt, B. C., Prosser, S., & Hebert, P. D. N. (2016). Century-Old DNA Barcodes \ Reveal Phylogenetic Placement of the Extinct Jamaican Sunset Moth, Urania sloanus Cramer (Lepidoptera: Uraniidae). PLOS ONE, 11(10), e0164405. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164405 8. Smith, N. (1991). FOOD PLANT ASSOCIATIONS OF THE URANIINAE (URANIIDAE) AND THEIR SYSTEM A TIC, EVOLUTIONARY, AND ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE. Journal of the Lepidopterists’ SOciety, 45(4), 296–347. https://images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1990s/1991/1991-45(4)296-Lees.pdf

External links

* *
''Urania sloanus'' Peale specimen from the Academy of Natural Sciences general collection
Contains a photo (with scale) of a specimen collected by Titian R. Peale. {{Taxonbar, from=Q141930 Extinct animals of Jamaica

† A dagger, obelisk, or obelus is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used. The symbol is also used to indicate death (of people) or extinction (of species or languages). It is one of the mo ...

Extinct insects since 1500 Extinct moths Moths of South America

Taxa named by Pieter Cramer