FNZ 65 - Izatha (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea: Oecophoridae) - Introduction
Hoare, RJB 2010. Izatha (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea: Oecophoridae). Fauna of New Zealand 65, 201 pages.
(
ISSN 0111-5383 (print),
ISSN 1179-7193 (online)
;
no.
65.
ISBN 978-0-478-34724-1 (print),
ISBN 978-0-478-34725-8 (online)
).
Published 02 Sep 2010
ZooBank: http://zoobank.org/References/4C033FE9-9AD7-4CAC-875E-3A922905BA53
Introduction
Historical notes
Izatha was described by Francis Walker (Walker, 1864a) for the single species I. attactella. Walker apparently picked the genus name (in common with others) at random from a list of ancient place-names, perhaps that of the early geographer Ptolemy; Izatha was a town in Mauritania, North Africa. Walker (1864a, 1864b) described 6 other species now placed in Izatha (adapertella, convulsella, copiosella, lichenella, peroneanella, and picarella), but failed to recognise their relationships and placed them in Gelechia (convulsella, copiosella, adapertella, peroneanella), Oecophora (picarella), and Cryptolechia (lichenella). The extent of his confusion is revealed by the fact that lichenella and adapertella (placed by him in separate genera) are synonymous with peroneanella.
No subsequent author has had such trouble with the genus. Only two species have ever been incorrectly referred to Izatha (planetella Hudson and griseata Hudson; see below), but Meyrick (1884, 1910) erected three new genera that are now considered synonymous with it. One of these (Semiocosma Meyrick, 1883a) was described because Meyrick had not yet satisfied himself as to the identity of Walker’s attactella (Meyrick, 1884: 46), and anyway had scant regard for the usefulness of Walker’s descriptions. A second genus (Zirosaris Meyrick, 1910) was erected to receive a species (amorbas Meyrick, 1910, here synonymised with copiosella Walker) that differs in labial palp and other characters from ‘typical’ Izatha, and is here treated as a member of a distinctive species-group. Both Semiocosma and Zirosaris were subsequently synonymised with Izatha by Meyrick (1905, 1920). The third genus (Aochleta Meyrick, 1883a) was described for the single species psychra, at the time known only from one specimen; again the genus was distinguished by characters of the labial palpi, and Meyrick considered it to be “doubtless a development of Semiocosma”. Aochleta was synonymised with Izatha by Dugdale (1988).
Meyrick described 16 species of Izatha between 1884 and 1929; 3 of these names (mystis, paraneura, and platyptera) he subsequently recognised as synonyms of species described by Walker, and 1 (percnitis) as a species (metadelta) that he himself had described earlier. Philpott (1913, 1926, 1927a) described 5 new species (heroica, milligani, mira, florida, and plumbosa); of these, milligani is a junior synonym of balanophora Meyrick (Hudson 1939), and plumbosa is here synonymised with mira.
G. V. Hudson had a particular fondness for Izatha, as revealed in his introductory remarks on the genus: “Most of the species imitate lichens, and in many the colouring is very beautiful. One of them, Izatha peroneanella, may be ranked as one of the loveliest of the New Zealand Lepidoptera.... Much pleasure awaits the field naturalist who investigates these insects, as the beauty of their perfect adaptations can only be properly appreciated by a study of living specimens, in their natural surroundings” (Hudson, 1928: 277–278). Hudson reared a number of species and described the larvae of attactella, austera, convulsella, metadelta, peroneanella (or perhaps huttonii), and phaeoptila (Hudson 1928); he can also be credited with the discovery of balanophora, caustopa, manubriata, mesoschista, metadelta, phaeoptila, and rigescens, all described by Meyrick from Hudson specimens. He only named two species in Izatha himself, but both were incorrectly placed: the first, I. planetella, described in 1923, is a junior synonym of Barea exarcha Meyrick (Philpott 1927a, Dugdale 1988). The second, I. griseata, is here recognised as a synonym of the adventive Australian gelechiid Anarsia dryinopa Lower (see Appendix 1).
Since 1939, only one previously unrecognised species of Izatha has been described; this is I. oleariae, endemic to the subantarctic Snares Islands. This species was collected by P. M. Johns and named by Dugdale (1971). Later, Dugdale (1988) briefly diagnosed two new species of Izatha (churtoni and hudsoni); these had previously been recognised as distinct, but churtoni (picarella var. ß of Walker, 1864a) lacked an available name, and hudsoni had been known under the misapplied name huttonii Butler. Dugdale (1988) recognised 1 further undescribed species in collections, i.e. copiosella in the sense of Hudson (not of Walker): this is described in this work as voluptuosa n. sp.
It is perhaps suprising that as many as 14 further new species of Izatha have since been discovered in collections, although several of these are obscure in appearance or very similar to described taxa. Given that several species are known only from a handful of specimens and localities, the discovery of more new taxa is likely.