''Thyrocopa'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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 ...

s in the family Xyloryctidae

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 ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. The

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

has approximately forty

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, including some

flightless Flightless birds are birds that through evolution lost the ability to fly. There are over 60 extant species, including the well known ratites (ostriches, emu, cassowaries, rheas, and kiwi) and penguins. The smallest flightless bird is the ...

species.
BayScience Foundation, Inc.

Adults

Although some '' Agrotis'' species occur at very

high altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

s in Hawaii and female ''Agrotis'' from

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 ...

are sometimes

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 ...

, brachyptery in both sexes of

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

species is rare and is usually limited to

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hou ...

-battered

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s, often southern oceanic

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s and sparsely vegetated areas where the moths locomote by jumping. ''Thyrocopa'' includes the only species of flightless

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

moth in the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

. Having studied males and females of two different species (''

Thyrocopa apatela ''Thyrocopa apatela'', the grasshopper moth or Haleakala flightless moth, is a species of brachypterous (flightless) moth from the Hawaiian island of Maui.

'' and ''

Thyrocopa kikaelekea ''Thyrocopa kikaelekea'', a species of flightless moth from Hawaii in genus ''Thyrocopa'', was recently discovered by entomologists at University of California, Berkeley and described in a 2008 paper.University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

concluded that they had not evolved from a flightless common ancestor nor had they dispersed to new habitats after becoming flightless. Rather, each was descended from a flying ancestor but had separately undergone wing reduction and

evolved Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation t ...

flightlessness in a case of parallel evolution occurring in less than 1 million years. The adaptation is thought to be a response to specific environmental pressures such as scattered food resources, lack of

predation Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...

, high winds, and low temperatures that elicit loss of flight. Their

hypothesis A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obse ...

is supported by both

molecular A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bioche ...

and morphological evidence.
Entomological Society of America

Larvae

An entomology, entomologist at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

described most

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e of this genus as

generalist A generalist is a person with a wide array of knowledge on a variety of subjects, useful or not. It may also refer to: Occupations * a physician who provides general health care, as opposed to a medical specialist; see also: ** General pract ...

feeders that eat decaying

leaf A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

tissue and generally hide in webby

frass Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter. Definition and etymology ''Frass'' is an informal term and accordingly it is variously used and variously defined. It is derived from the ...

structures they make themselves. The larva of an undescribed species has a slightly different appearance from the generalist species and seems to be a specialist borer in ''

Broussaisia arguta ''Broussaisia arguta'', the kanawao, is a species of perennial flowering plant in the ''Hydrangea'' family, Hydrangeaceae, that is endemic to Hawaii. It is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Broussaisia''. Kanawao is a widespread speci ...

'', a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

native-Hawaiian relative of the hydrangea. At 20 °C in the laboratory, specimens stayed larvae for 2–20 weeks and remained in

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

form for 2-8, a range in development time indicative of a number of species being kept together in the study. The larvae have been collected on a wide variety of host plants (most of them endemic to Hawaii) including maile (''Alyxia oliviformis''), painiu (''

Astelia argyrocoma ''Astelia argyrocoma'' is a species of astelia endemic to the highlands of Kauaʻi in the state of Hawaii, United States. This plant is found only in native Hawaiian tropical rainforests The Hawaiian tropical rainforests are a tropical moist ...

''), ākōlea ('' Athyrium microphyllum''), '' Carex'' spp., lapalapa (''

Cheirodendron platyphyllum ''Cheirodendron platyphyllum'', also known as ''lapalapa'', is a species of flowering plant in the ginseng family, Araliaceae, that is endemic to the islands of Oahu and Kauai in Hawaii. It is a small tree In botany, a tree is a perenn ...

''), pilo (''

Coprosma ''Coprosma'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is found in New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Borneo, Java, New Guinea, islands of the Pacific Ocean to Australia and the Juan Fernández Islands. Description The name ''Copros ...

elliptica''), koi ('' Coprosma kauensis''), ukiuki ('' Dianella sandwicensis''), uluhe (''

Dicranopteris linearis ''Dicranopteris linearis'' is a common species of fern known by many common names, including Old World forked fern, ''uluhe'' ( Hawaiian), and ''dilim'' ( Filipino). It is one of the most widely distributed ferns of the wet Old World tropics and ...

''), '' Dryopteris'' spp., naenae ula ('' Dubautia raillardioides''), ''

Elaphoglossum ''Elaphoglossum'' is a genus of ferns in the family Dryopteridaceae, subfamily Elaphoglossoideae, in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). Taxonomy ''Elaphoglossum'' was first described in 1841 by John Smith, who attr ...

'' spp., manono ('' Hedyotis terminalis''), kakaemoa ('' Melicope clusiifolia''), ōhia lehua ('' Metrosideros polymorpha''), kōlea ('' Myrsine punctata''), kōpiko (''

Psychotria ''Psychotria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It contains 1,582 species and is therefore one of the largest genera of flowering plants. The genus has a pantropical distribution and members of the genus are small understor ...

'' spp.), sawtooth blackberry ('' Rubus argutus''), hoi kuahiwi ('' Smilax melastomifolia''), pūkiawe (''

Styphelia tameiameiae ''Leptecophylla tameiameiae'', known as or in the Hawaiian language, is a species of flowering plant that is native to the Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands. The specific epithet honors King Kamehameha I, who formed the Kingdom of Hawaii. It ...

''), and ohelo kau laau ('' Vaccinium calycinum'').

Species

The genus contains the following

Photo links

Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk: Insects of Hawaii

Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk: Insects of Hawaii

MorphBank Images

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7799703 Thyrocopa, Xyloryctidae Endemic moths of Hawaii Taxa named by Edward Meyrick Xyloryctidae genera