Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Xylorycta sigmophora


Xylorycta sigmophora Lower, 1894


♀ - Qld, Carnarvon National Park Lat. 24' 58'' S Long. 148' 01'' E, 19. Apr. 1999, E.D. Edwards leg. (ANIC). [AMO].

Xylorycta sigmophora Lower, 1894. New Australian Heterocera. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia  18: 77–113 [92]. Holotype: whereabouts unknown ♂, unknown.
Xylorycta sigmophora Lower, 1894. Common, in Nielsen, Edwards, & Rangsi, 1996, Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia. Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera, 4: i-xiv, 1-529 & CD-ROM [89].
Xylorycta sigmophora Lower, 1894. Edwards, E. D. (2003), Xyloryctinae. Australian Faunal Directory. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/online-resources/fauna/afd/taxa/XYLORYCTINAE [accessed 19 June 2010].

Original description, Lower 1894
Xylorycta sigmophora, n. sp.
Male, 35 mm. Head and thorax ashy-grey whitish; palpi, legs, abdomen, and antennae same colour, antennal ciliations one and a half; abdomen with ferruginous segmental rings, anterior tibiae and tarsi fuscous ringed and whitish; terminal joint of palpi infuscated. Forewings elongate-oblong, costa slightly arched, apex obtuse, hindmargin obliquely rounded; ashy-grey whitish, minutely irrorated with black; an obscure patch of blackish scales towards base; a blackish S-shaped mark in middle of wing, followed by a small blackish suffusion; a hindmarginal row of confluent blackish dots, immediately followed by a whitish line on extreme hindmargin; cilia ashy-grey whitish, with a darker median line. Hindwings light fuscous; cilia grey-whitish, with a fuscous basal line.
Very like in general appearance species of Agriophara. It is not near any other known to me.

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Distribution: New South Wales, Victoria. Endemic. (Edwards, 2003).

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