Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Cryptophasa aglaodes



Cryptophasa aglaodes (Lower, 1893)


♀ - QM

♀ - QM

Cryptophaga aglaodes, Lower, 1893. New Australian Lepidoptera. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 17: 146-185. [171]. Holotype SAMA ♀, Arthurton, Yorke Peninsula, SA.
Cryptophaga aglaodes. Illidge, 1895, Xylorycts, or timber moths. Queensland Natural History Society Transactions, 1,  29-34.
Cryptophaga aglaodes Lower, 1893. Lower, 1896: A catalogue of Victorian Heterocera. Part xix. The Victorian Naturalist, 12: 149-152 (150).
Cryptophaga aglaodes Low. Lower, 1905: New Australian Lepidoptera, No. XXII. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 29: 103-115 (110).
Cryptophasa aglaodes (Lower, 1893). Common, in Nielsen, Edwards, & Rangsi, 1996, Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia. Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera, 4: i-xiv, 1-529 & CD-ROM [86].
Cryptophasa aglaodes (Lower, 1893). 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 12 April 2010].
Cryptophasa aglaodes (Lower, 1893). 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 16 June 2010].

Original description, Lower 1893
Cryptophaga aglaodes, n. sp.
Female, 50 mm. Head, antennae, thorax and palpi white, second joint internally black at base. Legs whitish, tarsi ringed with black. Abdomen whitish; second segment broadly orange-red, others anteriorly suffused with fuscous. Forewings moderate, oblong, costa gently arched, apex rounded, hindmargin rather oblique; 2 from three-fourths; pale whitish-ochreous, slightly infuscated; costa towards apex slenderly blackish; a small well-defined black dot in disc at one-third, and another similar obliquely beyond, at about middle; cilia whitish-ochreous, with a row of well-defined black spots at extremities of veins, and continued along apical-fourth of costa. Hindwings whitish-ochreous, 6 and 7 stalked; cilia as in forewings.
One specimen, bred from Casuarina quadrivalvis [Allocasuarina verticillata], at Arthurton, Yorke Peninsula, in September. Nearest C. lurida, Meyr., but differs by the sparse markings and wholly whitish hindwings.

Subsequent description, Lower 1905
XYLORYCTIDAE
Cryptophaga aglaodes, Low.

(Tr.R.S.S.A., p. 171, 1893.)
Male, 38 mm. I have received from Mr. S. Angel the male of this species. In colour and markings it does not differ from the female; the antennal pectinations are about 1 ½; this is a similar character to that observed in sarcinota, Meyr. (to which this species is mostly allied), but is easily separated from that species by the totally different colouring, shorter terminal joint of palpi, and absence of double black dot on forewing, which is conspicuous in sarcinota.
The male was taken by Mr. Field at Tennant's Creek, Central South Australia, and the female (type) at Arthurton, Yorke's Peninsula, South Australia.

Other references

C. aglaodes, Lower (Tr. Roy. Soc. S.A., 170, 1893).
Kewell. (Lower, 1895).

Diagnosis:
Description:
Head:
Thorax:
Abdomen:
Food plants: Larval foodplant: Allocasuarina verticillata sp. (Casuarinaceae). (Edwards, 2003).
Flight period:
Distribution: Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria. Endemic. (Edwards, 2003).

Remarks: