''Mnesictena flavidalis'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

in the family Crambidae. It was described by Edward Doubleday in 1843. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Taxonomy

This species was first described by Edward Doubleday in Ernst Dieffenbach's book ''Travels in New Zealand: with contributions to the geography, geology, botany and natural history of the country'' and named ''Margaritia flavidalis.'' In 1899 Hampson placed this species in the genus ''Mnesictena.'' In 1983 G. E. Munroe synonymised the genus ''Mnesictena'' with ''Udea.'' However in 1988 John S. Dugdale treated ''Mnesictena'' as a valid genus. Dugdale's treatment was followed in 2011 by Richard Mally and Matthias Nuss. The male

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

specimen, collected in Auckland by A. Sinclair, is held at the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

Description

Doubleday described this species as follows:

References

Moths described in 1843 flavidalis Moths of New Zealand Endemic fauna of New Zealand Taxa named by Edward Doubleday Endemic moths of New Zealand {{Spilomelinae-stub