Cryptophasa balteata (Walker, 1866)
Cryptophasa balteata, Queensland Museum. Smaller males, larger female.
Zitua balteata, Walker, 1866, Supplement 5. List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. Vol. 35. 1534–2040 pp. [1841]. Holotype BMNH ♂, Australia.
Cryptophaga lurida Walk. Meyrick, 1890. Descriptions of Australian Lepidoptera. Part I. Xyloryctidae. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 13: 23–81 [37].
Cryptophaga balteata Walk. Lower, 1894: New Australian Heterocera. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 18: 77-113 [89, 91].
Cryptophaga lurida, Meyr., var. asemanta, Lower, 1894: New Australian Heterocera. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 18: 77-113.
Cryptophaga lurida. Illidge, 1895: Xylorycts, or timber moths. Queensland Natural History Society Transactions, 1, 1895, 29-34. Holotype BMNH ♀, Mt Lofty, SA.
Zitua balteata Walker. Walsingham, 1898, Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London, vii-xii.
Cryptophaga acroleuca Turner, 1898, The Xyloryctidae of Queensland. Annals of the Queensland Museum 4: 1–32 [8]. Syntype(s) ANIC unknown number ♂♀, Brisbane, Qld.
Cryptophaga balteata Walk. Turner, 1900: New Microlepidoptera, mainly from Queensland, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 24, 6-23 [7].
Cryptophaga balteata, Wkr. Walsingham and Durrant, 1900, Catalogue of Eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the Collection of the Oxford University Museum, Part II, Noctuina, Geometrina and Pyralidina by Colonel C. Swinhoe; Pterophoridae and Tineina by the Right Hon. Lord Walsingham, and John Hartley Durrant, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1-630 (549).
Zitna balteata Walk. Turner, 1900: New Microlepidoptera, mainly from Queensland, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 24, 6-23 [7] [misspelling.]
Cryptophaga balteata Walk. Lower, 1901, Descriptions of new genera and species of Australian Lepidoptera. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 25: 63-98 [82].
Cryptophasa balteata, Wlk. Turner, 1902. New Australian Lepidoptera. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 26: 175–207 [203].
Cryptophasa balteata Meyrick. Vitor O. Becker, 1982, Stenomine moths of the Neotropical genus Timocratica (Oecophoridae), Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Entomology series, 45 (3 ) 227
Cryptophasa balteata (Walk) Common, 1990: Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press. 227-230 [230].
Cryptophasa balteata (Walker, 1866). Common, in Nielsen, Edwards, & Rangsi, 1996, Checklist of the Lepidoptera of Australia. Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera, 4: i-xiv, 1-529 & CD-ROM [87].
Cryptophasa balteata. Hodges, 1998, The Gelechioidea, in Kristensen, 1999, Handbook of Zoology, Volume IV, Arthropoda: Insecta, Part 35, Lepidoptera , Moths and Butterflies Vol, 1, Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography, 131-158 (157).
Cryptophasa balteata (Walker, 1866). 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 17 June 2010].
Cryptophasa balteata (Walker, 1866). 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 18 June 2010].
Original description, Walker, 1866
Zitua balteata.
Mas. fusca; caput et thorax anticus albida; abdomen nigrum, ochraceo fasciatum, apice albidum; alea anticae punctis quatuor nigris elongatis. Posticae nigrae.
Male. Brown. Body white beneath. Head and fore part of the thorax whitish. Abdomen black, with a broad ochraceous middle band; apical tuft whitish. Legs white; tarsi black, their joints with white tips. Fore wings with four elongated black points; first point antemedial, forming an oblique streak; under side black. Hind wings black. Length of the body 7 lines [14.8mm]; of the wings 17 lines [36mm].
a. Australia. Frim Mr Stevens’ collection.
Synonymic description, Meyrick 1890
Crypt. lurida, n. sp.
Female 58mm. Head, palpi, and thorax whitish-ochreous. Antennae blackish. Abdomen blackish, sides of segments white at base, second segment dull red on back, anal segment whitish-ochreous. Legs whitish-ochreous, tarsi black with white rings on apex of joints. Forewings oblong, posteriorly somewhat dilated, costa moderately arched, apex obtuse, hindmargin rather obliquely rounded; 2 from 4/5; whitish-ochreous, towards inner margin anteriorly slightly brownish-tinged; a black dot in disc at 1/3, a second on fold beneath middle, and two others obliquely transversely placed in disc at ¾, lower anterior cilia whitish-ochreous, with a basal row of black dots. Hindwings with veins 6 and 7 from a point; white; basal half blackish, division suffused; cilia white, on anal angle and inner margin blackish.
Mount Lofty, South Australia; one specimen received from Mr. E. Guest. Larva residing in a barricaded tunnel in stems of Eucalyptus viminalis (“white gum”), carrying in leaves for food.
Synonymic description, Turner 1898
Cryptophaga acroleuca, n. sp. Male, 32-34 mm.; antennal pectinations, 2/3. Female, 40-62 mm. Forewings with vein 2 from 4/5.; hindwings with 6 and 7 from a point. Male: Head and thorax dark ochreous-brown. Face whitish. Palpi whitish, terminal joint dark fuscous Antennae blackish. Abdomen blackish; orange-red; tuft reddish-ochreous. Legs whitish, tinged with pale reddish; annulated with black. Forewings narrow oblong, costa almost straight, apex round-pointed, hindmargin obliquely rounded; dark ochreous-brown, a dark dot in disc at 1/3; a second, sometimes double, on fold below middle, and two placed transversely in disc at 3/5, the lower somewhat anterior; three black dots on apical 1/3 of costa, sometimes obsolete;. a narrow black line along hindmargin, sometimes interrupted; cilia dark ochreous-brown. Hindwings with hindmargin sinuate; dark fuscous, blackish towards base; cilia fuscous, some times whitish except towards anal angle. Female: head and thorax whitish, tinged with reddish-ochreous. Palpi whitish. Antennae dark fuscous. Legs whitish, tinged with pale reddish, annulated with black. Abdomen blackish; second segment orange-red; tuft and margin of penultimate segment whitish, tinged with reddish-ochreous. Forewings oblong, somewhat dilated posteriorly, costa slightly arched, apex round-pointed, hindmargin almost straight, moderately oblique; pale ochreous-brown, along costa inclining to whitish; discal dots as in male, a row of black dots along hindmargin and apical 1/5 of costa, sometimes inclining to be obsolete; cilia pale fuscous. Hindwings fuscous at base, gradually passing into whitish over apical third of disc, on which veins are outlined in fuscous; cilia white, towards anal angle fuscous.
Closely allied to C. sarcinota, Meyr., but appears a good species. The male is very different in general appearance. The female may be best distinguished by the whitish apices of the hindwings. Brisbane, a series bred by Mr. Illidge from Eucalyptus saligna. Also found on other species of this genus.
Other references
Cryptophaga balteata, Walk.
I have seen specimens of this insect from both Sydney and Wimmera district, Victoria; it has not been hitherto recorded but from Mount Lofty, South Australia. (Lower, 1894).
Cryptophaga lurida, Meyr., var. asemanta, Lower.
Differs from the typical form in being without discal spots of forewings, otherwise precisely similar.
Three specimens from Sydney, N.S.W. (Coll. Melbourne Museum). (Lower, 1894).
Zitua balteata, Walk., ♂, ♀, pupae, burrow;
...
and in the luteous species Z. balteata the male is dark chocolate, and differs so widely in shape and size from the female as to have been put at one time in a separate genus. I leave it to those who have studied such subjects with more attention than myself to endeavour to give a rational interpretation of these differences. So far as my experience goes, the prevailing rule among the Lepidoptera is that the female is more sluggish and more protected by coloration than the male, but here we have apparently an exactly opposite process. The males appear to be gradually assuming a protective colouring, which in the conspicuous white females is wholly disregarded, with the single exception
of M. unipunctana, which has a nearly white male and a grey female." (Walsingham, 1898).
Type, β. Zitua balteata, Wkr.
= zitua, Wkr., Cat. Lp. Ins. BM. XXXV. 1841 (1866); (one of three synonymic ‘types’ given for the genus Cryptophaga McLeay. Walsingham & Durrant, 1900).
Cryptophaga balteata, Walk.
Male. Zitna balteata, Walk:, Suppl., 1841.
Female. Cryptophaga lurida, Meyr., Proc. Roy. Soc., S.A., 1890, p. 37.
Both sexes Cryptophaga acroleuca, Turner, Annals, Queensland Museum, 1897, p. 8.
I am indebted to Mr. Meyrick for this synonymy. (Turner, 1900).
[Cryptophasa hyalinopa] Nearest balteata, Walk., but very distinct by the curious semi-hyaline hindwings. (Lower, 1901).
[Cryptophasa psilocrossa] In general appearance resembles the male of C. balteata, Wlk., but the wings are broader and differently shaped. It also differs in the pale spot on thorax, absence of dots on costa of forewings; and partly bare margin and white cilia of hindwings. (Turner, 1902).
In an attempt to trace relationships among the gelechioids I examined the larvae of four Australian Xyloryctinae in the BMNH: Cryptophasa hyalinopa Lower, C. balteata Meyrick, Echiomima mythica Meyrick and Perixestis eucephala (Turner). These species also have the adfrontal area not reaching the vertical angle of the head and the distance between setae P2 is almost the same as that between setae PI. Therefore it seems that the combination of both characters of the head, i.e., adfrontal area not reaching the vertical angle and the distance between setae P2 about the same as between setae PI, is a good diagnostic feature for distinguishing the larvae of Stenominae and Xyloryctinae from those of other Gelechioidea. (Becker, 1982)
♀ - Pl. 6.7: Common, 1990
Strongly dimorphic species of Cryptophasa include C. balteata (Walk.) (Pl. 6.7), C. pultenae Lew. (Fig. 23.14), and C. epadelpha Meyr. The male of C. balteata, which occurs from southern Queensland to South Australia, is much smaller than the female and is blackish in colour. The larva bores in stems of young Eucalyptus trees; sometimes the larval activity ringbarks the trees and the part above dies. (Common, 1990).
Hypertrophinae (fig. 9.2F). Valva with free sclerite at distal end of sacculus a supposed apomorphy but also occurring in Cryptophasa balteata (Xyloryctinae). (Hodges, 1998).
[The free sclerite in the Hypertrophinae is attached to the end of the sacculus; the clasper from which similar ‘free’ structures arise in Xyloryctinae appear to develop from the inner margin of the sacculus. Occasionally the clasper will have a pronounced hook or sclerotisation at the apex].
Diagnosis:
Description:
Head:
Cryptophasa balteata, ♀ head, IM09-0301, Imbil, Queensland
Thorax:
Abdomen:
Food plants: Larva boring in stem, tying cut leaves to bore entrance. Larval foodplants: Eucalyptus eugenioides, E. microcorys, E. tereticornis, E. saligna, E. viminalis (Myrtaceae). (Edwards, 2003).
Flight period: November.
Distribution: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia. Endemic. (Edwards, 2003).
Remarks: Very similar to C. hyalinopa, from which its female is distinguished by having the forewing marked by a single rather than a double dot nearest the dorsum. Turner’s C. acroleuca confuses this distinction. The apical half of the hindwings of some C. balteata females are ochreous-whitish and slightly glassy; its males have solid black forewings as opposed to the hyaline-tipped hindwings of C. hyalinopa.