+1Kontinente:OC
2. Biology
2.1. Hostplants of the caterpillars
- [Cupressaceae:] Callitris gracilis sp. (Zierliche Schmuckzypresse)
Kristensen et al. (2015: 8) can write about their new species: "Adult Aenigmatinea are diurnal and apparently short-lived. They have been observed only between late September and October, around Callitris gracilis on which females oviposit. [...] The female’s long, extensible oviscapt is used for inserting the egg below a bract near the growing tip (Figure S1e), at the junction between the main stem and the developing branch. Larval feeding scars are visible on the underside of the bark and correspond to the larval chambers (Fig. 1c), indicating that larvae remain here and feed on the phloem and/or callus tissue on the interior surface of the adjacent bark. No indications of tunnels between branch apices and definitive cells (often located 30 cm or more from the affected branch apices) have been found. The young larva is likely to make its chamber in the stem tissue close to the oviposition site, and depending on whether chamber formation has taken place around the time of, or sometime after, the beginning of elongation of the main branch and side branch (formed at the base of the enclosing bract), the chamber may be located close to, or distad to, the branch junction. Small and large larvae have been observed at the same time, and hence larval development probably spans more than one season."
3. Further information
3.1. Etymology (explanation of name)
The species was named after its discoverer; Kristensen et al. (2015: 8) specifically state: "Adjective, gender feminine, honoring the moth’s discoverer R. V. Glatz;". But then the (partly German-speaking) authors noticed that the name fits well with the sight of the butterfly: hardly any "hairs" on the head, only a few single ones at the back, otherwise shiny emptiness, just German "Glatze" ...". They therefore go on to write: "the name also alludes to the unusual dearth of head scales, Glatze being German for a bald head." [according to the photo on [ecos.csiro.au] the discoverer has much more hair on his head than the animal he discovered ...]
3.2. Taxonomy
If you intend to describe a new species, you normally know the genus before. Not here! If you have to describe a new genus, you normally know at least the family. Not here! The description of the new species and new genus is done by two authors, but it is embedded in a paper of 13 authors with title: "A new extant family of primitive moths from Kangaroo Island, Australia, and its significance for understanding early Lepidoptera evolution". The enigmatic new family was called "Aenigmatineidae". And you can hear the enthousiasm of the authors when they report about their new family of proboscis butterflies without real proboscis, and that they help, to better understand the basal Glossata. Many morphological and genetical features Many morphological and also genetic characteristics speak in favour of a union of Acanthopteroctetidae + Aenigmatineidae + Neopseustidae. They are therefore now placed together in a superfamily Neopseustoidea. The proboscis fragment of Aenigmatinea is thereby not evaluated as a proboscis precursor, but as a strongly reduced proboscis. Here I refer to the detailed discussion in the original paper. And for the history of the discovery see [ecos.csiro.au].
3.3. Faunistics
The species is so far only known from the type locality - and this despite the fact that the search was conducted in the wider environment. Kristensen et al. (2015: 8) remark on this: "The Kangaroo Island fauna is poorly known, and the suggestion (Davies et al., 2002) of low species-level endemism may well prove incorrect, but with 19 species of Callitris being broadly distributed on mainland Australia and New Caledonia (Pye et al., 2003), the discovery of additional Aenigmatinea populations or species seems possible. Callitris gracilis, with two recognized subspecies, is quite widely distributed across south-eastern Australia in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, with outlying records in the east of Western Australia (ABRS, 1998). It is noteworthy, however, that the known range of A. glatzella on the island is restricted, and targeted searches for the species where the host occurs in other nearby (but isolated) similar sites have so far been unsuccessful."
3.4. Type material
Kristensen et al. (2015: 8) inform: "Holotype data. ♂, AUSTRALIA, South Australia, Kangaroo Island, on private property, 1 km N of Willson River mouth, Mouth Flat, 35∘51′ S/137∘56′ E, 5. x. 2012 (South Australian Museum, Adelaide). Paratypes: 26♂♂, 39 ♀♀, October 5 and 19, 2009 and October 3–13, 2012, locality data as holotype (Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, Canberra; South Australian Museum, Adelaide; Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen; National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Natural History Museum, London; Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris; Zoological Museum of the Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany; private collections of R. Glatz, A. Kallies, M. Halsey)."
(Author: Erwin Rennwald)
3.5. Literature
- Original description: Kristensen, N.P., Hilton, D.J.H., Kallies, A., Milla, L., Rota, J., Wahlberg, N., Wilcox, S.A., Glatz, R.V., Young, D.A., Cocking, G., Edwards, T., Gibbs, G.W. & M. Halsey (2015): A new extant family of primitive moths from Kangaroo Island, Australia, and its significance for understanding early Lepidoptera evolution. — Systematic Entomology, 40: 5–16.
