Family Crambidae

Almost all of this diversity is contained in the subfamilies Crambinae and Scopariinae, with major radiations in the endemic genus Orocrambus (ca 50 species) and possibly the world’s largest radiation of Scopariinae (at least 126 species). By comparison, Spilomelinae and Pyraustinae (formerly treated as the single subfamily Pyraustinae) are very poorly represented here with only 20 species in total, and each of the remaining subfamilies has between 1 and 4 New Zealand species. One species, Argyrias.l.strophaea, formerly included in the genus Culladiain Crambinae, is unassigned to subfamily (see below). Crambids are an often conspicuous and abundant component of the native fauna, many being active or easily put up from their resting places by day, and inhabiting diverse habitats including coastal dunes, native (and exotic) forest, shrublands, wetlands, tussock grasslands and alpine herbfields. Most species are also attracted to light at night and crambids may make up a significant proportion of light-trap catches especially in more open environments. Some crambids are amongst our commonest moths (e.g. the ubiquitous Orocrambus flexuosellus), whilst others are very restricted in their requirements and are regarded as threatened (see Threatened species factsheets). A number of new adventive species have recently become established in New Zealand (e.g., Glyphodes onychinalis (Spilomelinae), Trichophysetis cf. cretacea (Cybalomiinae)) and there are likely to be more additions to the fauna in future. A summary of the known diversity and biology of each subfamily in New Zealand is given below. The numbers of named species given are those considered valid for the current treatment (i.e., after accounting for unpublished synonymies). Subfamily classification follows the GlobIZ world Pyraloidea database (Nuss et al. 2003-2015; www.pyraloidea.org).

Subfamily Acentropinae

1 named species

This subfamily was for a long time known as Nymphulinae. The only New Zealand species is Hygraula nitens, which is also New Zealand’s only moth with a fully aquatic, gilled larva. It is common and widespread and also occurs commonly in Australia.

79 named species, 3+ unnamed

The dominant New Zealand genus is the endemic Orocrambus with about 50 species. Larvae of Orocrambus, which are rarely seen or reared, feed on grasses (Poaceae) or sedges (Cyperaceae) from a silken shelter at the base of the plant. The genus is especially diverse in the alpine zone of the South Island; those restricted to the highest altitudes are dark in coloration and have compact, robust bodies and broad wings, appearing quite different from their slender, long-winged, pale counterparts at lower elevations. The genus was revised by Gaskin (1975); some corrections to Gaskin’s taxonomy were introduced by White (2002). Several species of Orocrambus have brachypterous flightless females (e.g., O. fugitivellus, O. sophistes). Note that some species of Orocrambusare difficult or impossible to identify confidently without genitalia dissection: species for which the photographed specimens lack abdomens have been determined in this way and belong in this category. Kupea and Maoricrambus are monotypic genera closely related to Orocrambus; K. electilis (another species with a brachypterous female) is confined to very localised colonies on Kaitorete Spit, Canterbury, while M. oncobolusis an apparently extremely local and rare species confined to a few scattered sites from the southern North Island to Southland (see Threatened species factsheets for both species).

The second most diverse genus after Orocrambusis Glaucocharis with 18 species. The genus is widespread, but all New Zealand species are endemic. Adults are frequently seen by day when they are disturbed from vegetation in forest. Most species are fairly common to abundant, at least locally; G. stellais far more local and seldom seen; G. planetopa (not illustrated here) is a very poorly known South Island species that is barely represented in collections.

Bleszynskia malacelloides and Culladia cuneiferellus are both adventive taxa here. Whilst C. cuneiferellus has become widespread and common in the northern North Island since its first reported New Zealand occurrence in 1999, B. malacelloides, which was well established from ca 1927 until the 1980’s (Dugdale 1988), has nearly disappeared, with only one recent record, from far northern Northland.

Gadira contains four endemic species associated with lichens: G. acerellais fairly common and widespread, whilst G. leucophthalma and G. petraulaare very local and confined to rocky places in the eastern South Island, often near the coast. A rare undescribed species is confined to the Mackenzie Basin (see Threatened species factsheets). The inclusion of Gadira petraula in the checklist of Australian Lepidoptera (Shaffer et al. 1996) is an error; there is no evidence for the occurrence of this species outside New Zealand.

The three species of Tauroscopa along with Tawhitia glaucophanes are relatively large-bodied grey to blackish day-flying moths of higher elevations; their appearance is typical of alpine Crambidae worldwide, resembling our alpine Orocrambus. Tawhitia pentadactylais a distinctive large but less heavily built species associated with swamps or sometimes drier grassland habitats from the central North Island south. The female of T. pentadactyla shows a tendency towards brachyptery.

Subfamily Glaphyriinae

1 named species, not illustrated

Hellula hydralisis a vagrant to New Zealand from eastern Australia, where it is a pest of Brassicaceae; it is apparently very rare here and has not been reported in recent years, but may have been overlooked.

Subfamily Heliothelinae

1 named species

Heliothela atrais a small day-flying endemic species, locally widespread in open habitats, particularly in the mountains, throughout the South Island. Its life history is unknown but the superficially similar European H. wulfeniana has larvae feeding on Viola spp. (Violaceae).

Subfamily Musotiminae

3 named species, 1 unnamed

Musotiminae are broad-winged brightly patterned crambids with larvae feeding on ferns. The commonest species, Musotima nitidalis, is a native shared with Australia, and has a number of known hosts, including Paesia scaberula, Pteridium esculentum, and Hypolepis spp. A rather distinctive large dark form has larvae on Asplenium oblongifolium. Musotima aduncalis is a strongly sexually dimorphic endemic species with larvae on maidenhair ferns, Adiantum spp. M. ochropteralis is a rarely seen adventive from Australia, so far recorded only from Auckland and not yet reared. An unnamed species of Musotima (not illustrated) is known from the Three Kings Islands.

Subfamily Pyraustinae

4 named species

This subfamily contains the well-known endemic kōwhai moth, Uresiphita maorialis, which is widespread, and its adventive Australian counterpart U. ornithopteralis (so far confined to the northern North Island); separation of the two relies mainly on underside characters, as described by Hoare (2011). Both have larvae feeding on various woody Fabaceae. Another species, Achyra affinitalis, migrates regularly from Australia, and is now established in drier localities; larvae feed on a wide range of low-growing plants. Pyrausta comastis (formerly Proteroeca comastis) is an extremely local and probably declining endemic moth of damp open habitats in the South Island, chiefly at higher elevations; its life history is unknown and needs investigating.

Subfamily Scopariinae

118+ named species, 8+ unnamed

This subfamily has undergone an extraordinary radiation in New Zealand, and forms a conspicuous element of the Lepidoptera fauna in most habitats. Although the range of wing patterns here is greater than is typical worldwide for this conservative group, New Zealand Scopariinae still present many formidable identification challenges, and a taxonomic revision is badly needed. The taxonomic decisions and identifications made in compiling the image gallery are discussed in detail on the page Notes on Scopariinae. All New Zealand species in this subfamily are endemic.

Numbers of species in the large genera Eudonia and Scoparia are not completely known, since not all taxa have been dissected, and genitalia examination is required to confirm a species’ generic placement. It is likely that Eudonia is the more diverse genus in New Zealand; species of Eudonia mostly have larvae that feed on mosses or lichens, but some incorporate grasses in their diet (e.g. E. sabulosella); several species are fern-feeding (e.g. E. zophochlaena, E. monophthalma) and one unnamed species has been reared from algae on rocks. Few New Zealand Scoparia species have been reared, but most are likely to be associated with herbaceous plants or mosses.

Antiscopa currently contains three widespread species, but the little-known alpine Scoparia s.l. fimbriata probably also belongs here. The life histories are unknown for all species.

Most remarkable are the two subantarctic species, Protyparcha scaphodes from the Auckland Islands and Exsilirarcha graminea from Campbell Island. In both species, the female is strongly brachypterous and flightless, with a large swollen abdomen (E. graminea female not illustrated here). P. scaphodes has a flighted male, but E. graminea has a strongly stenopterous flightless male with long legs adapted for jumping. Larvae feed in grass tussocks; assignment of these apparently primitive genera to Scopariinae follows Dugdale (1988). The two species are probably closely related and might better be placed in a single genus.

Subfamily Cybalomiinae

1 species, named?

A single Trichophysetis species has been well established in northern New Zealand since 1999 (Hoare 2001); it may be T. cretaceafrom east Asia, but this remains to be confirmed. Moths have been reared from larvae feeding on berries of introduced privet (Ligustrum sinense).

Subfamily Schoenobiinae

1 named species, 1 unnamed

Clepsicosma iridia has been variously placed in Acentropinae and Pyraustinae, but is correctly placed here based on secondary sexual characters of the male. The adults may be common in forests and shrublands from Northland to Westland amongst large Gahnia sedges, but the life history remains unknown. A second, unnamed Clepsicosma species is a very local inhabitant of gumlands and coastal areas in the Northland and Auckland districts (see Threatened species factsheets).

Subfamily Spilomelinae

15 named species, 1 unnamed

Species of this subfamily were formerly placed in Pyraustinae. The adults are mostly rather broad-winged moths, readily identified on wing pattern. The genus Mnesictena (treated as a synonym of Udea by Munroe (1983) and Nuss et al. 2003-2015) is retained here as a valid endemic genus based on the phylogenetic results of Mally & Nuss (2011); there are currently 7 named species. Larvae of Mnesictena spp. feed from silken spinnings on their hosts; M. pantheropa is restricted to the Chatham Islands and M. antipodea (not illustrated) to the Antipodes. Mnesictena adversa has not been confidently recognised here as a taxon separate from M. notata due to the variability of the latter in characters supposed to be of value in separating the two; further work is needed. The related genus Deana contains a single widespread endemic species, D. hybreasalis, with larvae on Clematis spp. Diasemia grammalisis an apparently endemic member of a genus that is widespread in the Old World; larvae feed low to the ground amongst leaf litter and plant roots. The native Diplopseustis perieresalis is a widespread Oriental and Australasian species that has recently become established in Europe; larvae have not been found in New Zealand, but adults are closely associated with various large dense monocot plants such as Gahnia and Carex, and sometimes with epiphytic orchids. Glyphodes onychinalis is a recently established adventive with larvae feeding on swan-plant (Gomphocarpus) and oleander (Nerium) in gardens. Herpetogramma licarsisalis is an immigrant that became established in Northland from about 1999, with larvae damaging pasture grasses; it is probably confined as a breeding species to the far North, but occurs sporadically further south. Leucinodes cordalis (formerly Sceliodes cordalis) is a native species shared with Australia; larvae feed in fruits of Solanaceae, chiefly the endemic Solanum laciniatum and S. aviculare. Proternia philocapnais a fairly common endemic forest species with larvae feeding in leaf-litter. The beet webworm Spoladea recurvalis is a sporadically establishing immigrant whose larvae feed on crops such as beet and spinach. An unnamed endemic species, tentatively assigned to Loxostege s.l., is an inhabitant of salt-pans in a few dry inland localities the South Island (see Threatened species factsheets).

Unplaced to subfamily

1 named species

Argyria s.l. strophaea is a peculiar endemic moth, with highly characteristic male and female genitalia. It occurs widely throughout the North Island and northern South Island in small numbers. It was placed in the crambine genus Culladiaby Gaskin (1973) but this placement is utterly misleading and erroneous (as is the original association with Argyria) (Hoare 2001). The life history is unknown.