''Orocrambus fugitivellus'' 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 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 ...

. It is classified as critically endangered by the

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

Taxonomy

This species was first described by George Hudson in 1950 using a specimen collected by R. D. Dick in 1939 in an area adjacent to Grays River in the

Mackenzie country The Mackenzie Basin (), popularly and traditionally known as the Mackenzie Country, is an elliptical intermontane river basin, basin located in the Mackenzie District, Mackenzie and Waitaki Districts, near the centre of the South Island of Ne ...

. Hudson named the species ''Crambus fugitivellus''. In 1975 David Edward Gaskin assigned ''Crambus fugitivellus'' to the genus ''

Orocrambus ''Orocrambus'' is a genus of moths of the family Crambidae. All species are Endemism, endemic to New Zealand. Species *''Orocrambus abditus'' Philpott, 1924 *''Orocrambus aethonellus'' Meyrick, 1883 *''Orocrambus angustipennis'' Zeller, 1877 *'' ...

''. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimen of ''O. fugitivellus'' is held in the Hudson collection at

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

Description

The larvae of this species have yet to be described. 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 ...

of the adult male is 18–19 mm. In appearance the adult male of ''O. fuitivellus'' is similar to '' O. aethonellus'' but differs in the more abrupt tapering of its forewings and the very oblique

termen Termen is a municipality in the district of Brig in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. History Termen is first mentioned in 1201 as ''Terman''. Geography Termen has an area, , of . Of this area, 42.2% is used for agricultural purposes, whil ...

. The female of the species is

brachypterous Brachyptery is an anatomical condition in which an animal has very reduced wings. Such animals or their wings may be described as "brachypterous". Another descriptor for very small wings is microptery. Brachypterous wings generally are not functi ...

Distribution

''Orocrambus fugitivellus'' is endemic to New Zealand. The Grays River wetlands in the Mackenzie Basin is the only area where this species has been recorded. Male adults of the species have been recorded on wing in February and are active during the day.

Host plants

Although this species inhabits shrub/grasslands its host plants have yet to be discovered.

Conservation status

This species has the "Nationally Critical" conservation status under the

New Zealand Threat Classification System The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand. The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had some ...

. It has been recommended that the type locality of ''O. fugitivellus'', the Grays River wetlands, be protected to help conserve the species.

References

External links

Holotype specimen of species
{{Taxonbar, from=Q13965324 Crambinae Moths described in 1950 Taxa named by George Hudson Endangered biota of New Zealand Endemic moths of New Zealand