Thyrocopa apatela
| Thyrocopa apatela | |
|---|---|
| |
| At Haleakala National Park Maui, Hawaii | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Xyloryctidae |
| Genus: | Thyrocopa |
| Species: | T. apatela
|
| Binomial name | |
| Thyrocopa apatela (Walsingham, 1907)
| |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Thyrocopa apatela, the grasshopper moth[1] or Haleakala flightless moth,[2] is a species of brachypterous (flightless) moth from the Hawaiian island of Maui.[3]
Description
[edit]Males and females are both short-winged, and their appearance resembles dried leaves.[4] Similarly, they travel by using the wind[4] and have the ability to hop up to ten times their body length.[5] Both the larvae and adults feed on the endemic shrub Dubautia menziesii.[6]
Habitat
[edit]The species gained its common name as it resides on the summit of Haleakala[7] in the Aeolian zone. [8]These moths shelter amongst debris blown by the breeze.[4]It is here as well that they lay eggs and the hatched larvae dwell. [4]
References
[edit]- ^ [1] University of California, Berkeley
- ^ [2] Thyrocopa apatela, Haleakala flightless moth, (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae)
- ^ [3] A new species of flightless, jumping, alpine moth of the genus Thyrocopa from Hawaii
- ^ a b c d Catts, E. Paul (1994). "Hawaiian Insects and Their Kin". American Entomologist. 40 (1): 57–58. doi:10.1093/ae/40.1.57a. ISSN 2155-9902.
- ^ Medeiros, Mathew; Dudley, Robert (2012). "Jumping Performance in Flightless Hawaiian Grasshopper Moths (Xyloryctidae: Thyrocopa spp.)". Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society. 44: 58.
- ^ Marti, Joan; Ernst, Gerald G. J., eds. (2005). Volcanoes and the Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511614767. ISBN 978-0-521-59725-8.
- ^ Medeiros, Mathew John (2009). "The evolution of flightlessness in Hawaiian moths". University of California, Berkeley ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
- ^ Smith, Clifford W. (1980). Proceedings, Third Conference in Natural Sciences, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Held at Hawaii Field Research Center, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on June 4-6, 1980. Cooperative National Park Resources Studies Unit, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Botany.
External links
[edit]- Zimmerman, Elwood C. (1978). Insects of Hawaii. Vol. 9 Microlepidoptera. The University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu. hdl:10125/7338.
- Medeiros, Matthew J. (2009). "A revision of the endemic Hawaiian genus Thyrocopa (Lepidoptera: Xyloryctidae: Xyloryctinae)" (PDF). Zootaxa. 2202: 1–47. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2202.1.1.