Aponotoreas incompta explained

Aponotoreas incompta is a moth of the family Geometridae.^[1] It is endemic to New Zealand.^[2]

Taxonomy

This species was first described by Alfred Philpott in 1918 under the name Notoreas incompta.^[3] In 1986 R. C. Craw described the new genus Aponotoreas and included A. incompta within it.

Description

Philpott stated that A. incompta was hardly indistinguishable in colour from A. orphnaea but that A. incompta differs as its antennal pectinations are shorter and it has less developed palpal hairs.

Distribution

The type specimen of this species was collected in January by R. Gibb, at the time the curator of the Southland Museum, in the Kepler Mountains at a height of approximately 900 metres. Specimens have also been collected around Arthur's Pass and the Hunter Mountains.^[4] A. incompta is regarded as an upland species of Fiordland but is also present as an outlier in the Old Man Range / Kopuwai region of Central Otago.

Host plant

Hudson noted that when he collected specimens at Arthurs Pass, A. incompta frequented Helichrysum although he did not state the host species of this moth. Larvae of this moth have been found on Dracophyllum species.^[5]

External links

• Citizen science observations of species
• Specimens held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum

Notes and References

1. Dugdale. J. S.. Lepidoptera - annotated catalogue, and keys to family-group taxa. Fauna of New Zealand. 1988. 14. 170–171. 2 February 2017. 0111-5383. 27 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190127012006/https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/49008/FNZ14Dugdale1988150.pdf. dead.
2. Craw. R. C.. 1986-01-01. Review of the genus Notoreas (sensu auctorum) (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Larentiinae). New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 13. 1. 131–140. 10.1080/03014223.1986.10422654. 0301-4223. free.
3. Philpott. Alfred. 1918. Descriptions of new species of Lepidoptera. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. en. 50. 125–132. Biodiversity Heritage Library.
4. Book: Hudson, George Vernon. The butterflies and moths of New Zealand. Ferguson & Osborn Ltd.. 1928. Wellington. 124.
5. 2005. DOC Conservation Resources Report (Part 1) on Tenure Review of Moa Hills Pastoral Lease (P 314) under Part 2 of the Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998. Department of Conservation. pdf. 24–25. 3 February 2017.