''Sabatinca chrysargyra'' is a species of

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 ...

belonging to the family

Micropterigidae Micropterigoidea is the superfamily of "mandibulate archaic moths", all placed in the single family Micropterigidae, containing currently about twenty living genera. They are considered the most primitive extant lineage of lepidoptera (Kristense ...

. It was described by

Edward Meyrick Edward Meyrick (25 November 1854, in Ramsbury – 31 March 1938, at Thornhanger, Marlborough) was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern micr ...

in 1886 and is endemic to

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 can be found from Franz Josef Glacier / Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere south but only on the western side of 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 ...

. Adults are on the wing from the beginning of October until the middle of January. Larvae likely feed on foliose

liverworts The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ge ...

and have been found on species in the genus ''

Plagiochila ''Plagiochila'' is a large, common, and widespread genus of liverworts in the order Jungermanniales. It is a member of the family Plagiochilaceae within that order. There may be anywhere from 500 to 1300 species, most of them from the tropics; ...

''. The adult moths live in a range of habitats preferring sunny open spaces in forests or snow-tussock grasslands that can range in altitude from near sea level up to 1,230 m. This species is very similar in appearance to ''

Sabatinca aemula ''Sabatinca aemula'' is a species of moth belonging to the family Micropterigidae. It is endemic to New Zealand and is found in the north western parts of the South Island. The larvae of this species has yet to be collected but it has been hypothe ...

'' and dissection of genitalia is required to distinguish between the two species.

Taxonomy

This species was described by

in 1885 named ''Palaeomicra chrysargyra'' using a specimen collected in December at

Lake Wakatipu Lake Wakatipu ( mi, Whakatipu Waimāori) is an inland lake (finger lake) in the South Island of New Zealand. It is in the southwest corner of the Otago region, near its boundary with Southland. ''Lake Wakatipu'' comes from the original Māori nam ...

at an altitude of 1100 ft. Meyrick went on to give a fuller description of the species published in 1886. In 1912 Meyrick placed this species within the ''Sabatinca'' genus. Gibbs, in 2014, synonymised ''S. passalota'' with ''S. chrysargyra''. Gibbs argued that Meyrick's justification for the separation of the taxa was incorrect as although specimens collected at higher altitudes had shorter, narrower wings there was no difference in genitalia nor was Meyrick's separation able to be justified through the bar-coding of the CO1 gene. The

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

specimen is held in 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 larvae of this species is grey-brown in colour with dark brown platelets. Meyrick described this species as follows: ''S. chrysargyra'' specimens collected at higher altitudes have wings that are narrower and shorter. This species is very similar in appearance to ''

'' and dissection of genitalia may be required to distinguish between the two species. ''S. chrysargyra'' differs in wing pattern from ''S. aemula'' as it has different sized spots on its wings rather than perceptible fasciae.

Distribution

''S. chrysargyra'' is endemic to New Zealand and can be found from Franz Josef Glacier / Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere south only on the western side of the

. It can be found at a wide range of altitudes from sea level up to 1,230 m.

Behaviour

This species is on the wing from the beginning of October until the middle of January.

Host species and habitat

The larvae likely feed on feed on foliose

. Larvae of this species have been found on liverworts in the genus ''

''. This species prefers sunny but open habitats including in forests near seepages or streams at near sea level altitudes up to subalpine snow-tussock habitats.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7395950 Micropterigidae Moths described in 1885 Endemic fauna of New Zealand Moths of New Zealand Taxa named by Edward Meyrick Endemic moths of New Zealand