Biology:Heliostibes vibratrix

Short description: Species of moth endemic to New Zealand

Heliostibes vibratrix
Illustration by George Hudson
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Oecophoridae
Genus:	Heliostibes
Species:	H. vibratrix
Binomial name
Heliostibes vibratrix Meyrick, 1927

Heliostibes vibratrix is a species of moth in the family Oecophoridae. It is endemic to New Zealand. This species inhabits open mountainside habitat and is known to feed on Nothofagus truncata. Yellow-crowned parakeets predate the larvae of H. vibratrix.

Taxonomy

This species was described by Edward Meyrick in 1927 using a specimen collected by George Hudson in January at Mount Arthur at 4000 ft. The female holotype specimen is held at the Natural History Museum, London.

Description

Meyrick described the species as follows:

♀ 16 mm. Head and palpi fuscous. Thorax rather darker bronzy-fuscous. Abdomen dark fuscous, ventral surface pale yellow. Forewings suboblong, termen hardly oblique; fuscous, with numerous irregular transverse cloudy dark purplish-fuscous striae; second discal stigma forming a small transverse dark fuscous spot; two slight whitish marks on dorsum about middle: cilia fuscous. Hindwings blackish-grey; cilia grey, basal third dark fuscous.

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand.

Habitat and host species

Nothofagus truncata, a host species of H. vibratrix.

This species prefers open mountainside habitat. The larvae of this species are known to feed on Nothofagus truncata. Larvae are a predated by the Yellow-crowned parakeet.

References

Wikidata ☰ Q13223707 entry