''Agathiphaga vitiensis'', or the Fiji kauri moth, 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 ...

of the family Agathiphagidae. It is found from Fiji to

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

and

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

Description

The length of the forewings is about 4 mm. The forewings are long, dorsally dark greyish-brown with fine white hairs, a light yellowish-brown patch on the anal area and a smaller patch of similar colour on the posterior margin. The larvae feed on '' Agathis vitiensis''. The full-grown larva is about 6 mm long and 2.5 mm wide. It is stoutly built and not flattened. They are yellowish in colour.

Sensilla Morphology

''A. vitiensis'', like its relative '' A. queenslandensis'', possesses ten different types of sensilla, which include: Bohm’s bristles, Chaetica I and II, Squamiformia, Trichodea, Biforked basiconica, short basiconica, and Coeloconica I, II, and III. Both sexes of A. vitiensis possess all ten types of these sensilla, and the size of each is relatively similar in size with the exception of Chaetica I (longer in females by an average of 12.8 µm) and Trichodea (longer in males by an average of 7.8 µm).

References

External links

* Agathiphagidae Taxa named by Lionel Jack Dumbleton Moths described in 1952 Moths of Oceania {{moth-stub