Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Xylorycta amaloptis


Xylorycta amaloptis Lower, 1915


Xylorycta amaloptis, ♀, holotype, South Australian Museum, Adelaide. © SAMA.

Cryptophasa sp. ANIC100 (closely similar barcode to X. amaloptis) (BOLD)

Cryptophasa sp. ANIC100 (closely similar barcode to X. amaloptis) (BOLD)

Xylorycta amaloptis Lower, 1915. Descriptions of new Australian Lepidoptera. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 40: 474–485 [484]. Holotype SAMA ♀, Broken Hill, NSW.
Xylorycta amaloptis Low. Lower, 1917, The Lepidoptera of Broken Hill, New South Wales, Part III, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 41, 369-377 [369].
Xylorycta amaloptis Lower, 1915. Common, in Nielsen, Edwards, & Rangsi, 1996, Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia. Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera, 4: i-xiv, 1-529 & CD-ROM [88]
Xylorycta amalopis [sic] Lower, 1915. Beccaloni, G. W., Scoble, M. J., Robinson, G. S. & Pitkin, B. (Editors). 2003. The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex). World Wide Web electronic publication. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/lepindex [accessed 1 May 2010].
Xylorycta amaloptis Lower, 1915. 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 1915
Xylorycta amaloptis, n. sp.
♀. 28 mm. Head, thorax, palpi, and antennae pale whitish-grey, [terminal joint of palpi imperfect]. Legs grey-whitish. Abdomen grey-whitish, second segment dull orange Forewings elongate, costa gently arched, termen rounded, oblique; pale whitish-grey, somewhat flesh-tinged, all markings obsolete; a fuscous-ferruginous line along termen and apical fifth of costa, obscure on costa and minutely dentate internally on termen; cilia dull ochreous-grey. Hindwings light fuscous, becoming whitish towards base; cilia grey.
Broken Hill, N.S.W.; one specimen, in February.
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Other references

Xylorycta amaloptis, Low.
One specimen, type, in February. (Lower, 1917).

Diagnosis:
Description:
Head:
Thorax:
Abdomen:
Food plants:
Flight period: February.
Distribution: New South Wales. Endemic. (Edwards, 2003).

Remarks: This moth appears to me more likely to belong with Cryptophasa spp. of the assemblage surrounding Cryptophasa delocentra. If that is the case, the species is likely to be sexually dimorphic and males could be quite different in appearance (see C. delocentra).