Xylorycta ceratospila Meyrick, 1915
Xylorycta ceratospila, ♀, holotype, photograph by Patrick Strutzenberger, ©BMNH.
Xylorycta ceratospila, ANIC. Misidentified as Iulactis semifusca. BOLD photo.
Xylorycta ceratospila, ANIC. Misidentified as Iulactis semifusca. BOLD photo.
Xylorycta ceratospila Meyrick, 1915, Exotic Microlepidoptera. 1 (10–15): 289–320, 321–352, 353–384, 385–416, 417–448, 449–480 [375]. Holotype BMNH ♀, Cairns, Qld.
Xylorycta ceratospila Meyrick, 1915. 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 ceratospila Meyrick, 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 5 May 2010].
Xylorycta ceratospila Meyrick, 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, Meyrick 1915
Xylorycta ceratospila, n. sp.
♀. 14 mm. Head and thorax white. Palpi white, terminal joint dark fuscous except towards base. Abdomen whitish. Forewings elongate, costa gently arched, apex obtuse-pointed (?), termen faintly sinuate, oblique; 7 to termen, 8 to costa; white; markings rather dark fuscous; a blotch occupying basal half of dorsum and reaching half across wing, with a long wedgeshaped posterior projection reaching in disc to 3/5; a smaller semicircular blotch extending on dorsum from near beyond this to tornus, connected with it on dorsum; a very oblique straight streak from costa beyond middle to termen beneath apex; a browner streak along apical fourth of costa : cilia light greyish, with some slender dark fuscous bars at base, round apex suffused with white (imperfect), on costa white with two rather dark fuscous bars. Hindwings grey; cilia whitish-grey.
Queensland, Cairns, in November (Dodd); one specimen.
Diagnosis:
Description:
Head:
Thorax:
Abdomen:
Food plants:
Flight period: November.
Distribution: Queensland. Endemic. (Edwards, 2003).
Remarks: Specimens of this moth in the ANIC collection have been misidentified as Iulactis semifusca. I am fairly certain that X. ceratospila belongs with other moths currently identified as Iulactis; alternatively, as Turner suggested, these moths may possibly belong to Plectophila. Many thanks to Patrick Strutzenberger whose type specimen photography at the BMNH has enabled this confusion to be clarified.