Kingdom Animalia Family Oecophoridae Scientific name Izatha caustopa Rank Species | Class Insecta Genus Izatha Phylum Arthropoda Order Butterflies and moths | |
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Izatha caustopa is a lichen tuft moth in the family Oecophoridae. It is endemic to New Zealand, where it is known very locally, and very infrequently, from the southern half of the North Island: two specimens collected in 2016 were the first seen for 30 years.
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Description
I. caustopa is brown with a rather large wingspan for the genus: 24–26 mm for males and 29–31.5 mm for females. The entomologist George Vernon Hudson reared the moths from dead branches of kotukutuku (Fuchsia excorticata) collected in Karori, Wellington. He noted the larvae "feed during the winter months... driving burrows through the soft wood in all directions"—like most lichen tuft moths, they are probably feeding on fungi. They are full grown by about October. Adults have been recorded mostly in January and February, with single records for December and April.
Rarity
I. caustopa was discovered in Wellington in the late 19th century. Hudson noted this species was found in a few patches of tree fuchsia at Gollans Valley and Wilton's Bush, Wellington; he collected his last specimen in 1942. A single specimen was collected in Ohakune in 1921, and two more at Puketitiri (near Napier), in 1964 and 1985. I. caustopa had not been seen for 30 years when two specimens was discovered in 2016 at Bushy Park near Whanganui. Its rarity may be linked to the decline of its host tree, which is a favourite food of introduced possums. It may actually be quite common in small pockets of forest in the North Island, and simply have been overlooked, since it is not attracted to bright light the way most moths are; the specimens at Bushy Park were caught in a Malaise trap.