''Sthenopis pretiosus'', the gold-spotted ghost moth, 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 ...

of the family

Hepialidae The Hepialidae are a family of insects in the lepidopteran order. Moths of this family are often referred to as swift moths or ghost moths. Taxonomy and systematics The Hepialidae constitute by far the most diverse group of the infraorder Exopo ...

. It was first described by

Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer (17 December 1799 – 14 April 1874) was a German entomologist and physician. He was born, and died, in Regensburg. Herrich-Schäffer studied and collected particularly butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). ...

in 1856. It can be found in found

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

and in the eastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and south-eastern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Naming history

''Sthenopis pretiosus'' was independently discovered, named and described at least three times: #It was first found in

Brasil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area an ...

and described by

in 1856 who called it ''Epialus pretiosus''. The type specimen of ''E. pretiosus'' has not been located. #It was also found in the north-eastern United States and south-eastern

and described by

Augustus Radcliffe Grote Augustus Radcliffe Grote (February 7, 1841 – September 12, 1903) was a British entomologist who described over 1,000 species of butterflies and moths.Osborn, H. 1937. Fragments of Entomological History. Columbus, OH: Published by the autho ...

in 1878, who called it ''Hepialus auratus'' which become ''Sthenopis auratus''. #It was also found in

and described by Rudolf Pfitzner in 1906, who called it ''Phassus eldorado''. Later Pfitzner published an illustration of ''Phassus eldorado''. The

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 ...

of ''P. eldorado'' is at the

Senckenberg Museum The Naturmuseum Senckenberg is a museum of natural history, located in Frankfurt am Main. It is the second-largest of its type in Germany. The museum contains a large and diverse collection of birds with 90,000 bird skins, 5,050 egg sets, 17,0 ...

in Frankfurt am Main. In 2015, Carlos G. C. Mielke and John R. Grehan concluded that ''Hepialus auratus'' Grote, 1878 and ''Phassus eldorado'' Pfitzner, 1906 are junior and subjective synonymies of ''Sthenopis pretiosus'' Herrich-Schäffer,

856 __NOTOC__ Year 856 (Roman numerals, DCCCLVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * March 15 – Emperor Michael III overthrows the reg ...

/small>, and applied the rule of priority to change the names of ''H. auratus'' and ''P. eldorado'' to ''Sthenopis pretiosus''.

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 60–70 mm. The forewings are yellowish brown with several gold spots and an indistinct whitish, pinkish, or silvery band overlaid with small angular patches. The hindwings are light yellowish orange and unmarked. Food plants for this species include ''

Athyrium ''Athyrium'' (lady-fern) is a genus of about 180 species of terrestrial ferns, with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is placed in the family Athyriaceae, in the order Polypodiales. Its genus name is from Greek '' a-'' ('without') and Latinized G ...

'', ''

Dryopteris :''The moth genus ''Dryopteris'' is now considered a junior synonym of '' Oreta. ''Dryopteris'' , commonly called the wood ferns, male ferns (referring in particular to ''Dryopteris filix-mas''), or buckler ferns, is a fern genus in the family D ...

'', and ''

Matteuccia ''Matteuccia'' is a genus of ferns with one species: ''Matteuccia struthiopteris'' ( common names ostrich fern, fiddlehead fern, or shuttlecock fern). The species epithet ''struthiopteris'' comes from Ancient Greek words () "ostrich" and () "fe ...

''.

Bibliography

*Kirby, W. F. 1892. ''A Synonymic Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera (Moths)''. Vol. I, Sphinges and Bombyces. — London (Guerney & Jackson), Berlin (R. Friedländer), xii + 951 pp. *Mielke, C.G.C. & Grehan, J. R. (2012): Catalogue of the Latin American Hepialidae with taxonomic remarks (Lepidoptera). ''Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo'' (N.F.)32: 131–158. *Mielke, C.G.C. & Grehan, J.R. 2016. Description of a new species of Phassus Walker, 1856 from Costa Rica, Pallas, gen. n., with a new species from Guatemala, and taxonomic notes on Sthenopis Packard,

865 __NOTOC__ Year 865 ( DCCCLXV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * King Louis the German divides the East Frankish Kingdom among his three sons. Ca ...

(Lepidoptera, Hepialidae). ''European Journal of Entomology'' 7: 113-134. *Nielsen, E. S. & Robinson, G. S. 1983. Ghost moths of southern South America (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae). ''Entomograph'' 4: 1–192. *Nielsen, E. S., Robinson, G. S. & Wagner, D. L. 2000. Ghost-moths of the world: a global inventory and bibliography of the Exoporia (Mnesarchaeoidea and Hepialoidea) (Lepidoptera). ''Journal of Natural History'', London 34: 823–878. *Robinson, G.S. & Nielsen, E. S. 1984. Hepialidae. In Heppner, J. B. (ed.), ''Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera''. Checklist: Part 1. Micropterigoidea–Immoidea. — Den Haag (W. Junk), xxvii + 112 pp. *Wagner, H. & Pfitzner, R. 1911. Hepialidae. In Aurivillius, C., & Wagner, H. (eds.), ''Lepidopterorum Catalogus'' 4. — Berlin (W. Junk), pp. 1–26.

References

External links

Hepialidae genera
Moths described in 1878 Hepialidae {{Hepialidae-stub