''Orocrambus aethonellus'' 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 Meyrick in 1883. 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 ...

. ''O. aethonellus'' has been recorded from the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. The habitat consists of sandhills and bogs at sea level, up to altitudes of about 1,200 meters.

Taxonomy

''O. aethonellus'' was first described by Edward Meyrick in June 1882 and named ''Crambus aethonellus''. Meyrick gave a fuller description of this species in May of 1883. The lectotype specimen, collected at Mount Hutt by R. E. Fereday, 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

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 13–20 mm for males and 15–21 mm for females. Adults have been recorded on wing from late October to late January.

References

Crambinae Moths described in 1883 Taxa named by Edward Meyrick Endemic fauna of New Zealand Moths of New Zealand Endemic moths of New Zealand {{Crambinae-stub