Eudonia rakaiensis is a species of moth in the family Crambidae. It is endemic to New Zealand.
Taxonomy
This species was originally described by the English entomologist Henry Guard Knaggs in 1867 under the name Scoparia rakaiensis. In 1988, John S. Dugdale reassigned the species to the genus Eudonia; however, in doing so he misspelled the specific epithet as rakaiaensis instead of the correct rakaiensis. As a result, the spelling Eudonia rakaiaensis appears in some taxonomic databases as a variant or misspelling.
Distribution
Eudonia rakaiensis is endemic to New Zealand. It has been recorded in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection (NZAC) and is listed in the New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity.
Description
As with other members of the genus Eudonia, this species is a relatively small, inconspicuous moth. The genus Eudonia comprises roughly 250 species worldwide, many of which are greyish-brown in coloration. The larvae of most Eudonia species are known to feed on mosses.
References
- Gordon, Dennis P., ed. (2010). New Zealand inventory of biodiversity: Kingdom animalia: chaetognatha, ecdysozoa, ichnofossils. Vol. 2. p. 458. ISBN 978-1-877257-93-3.
- Knaggs, H.G. (1867). "New species of Scoparia (Lepidoptera) from New Zealand, collected by R.W. Fereday". Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. 4: 80–81.
- Dugdale, J. S. (1988). "Lepidoptera - annotated catalogue, and keys to family-group taxa". Fauna of New Zealand. 14: 158.
- Hoare, R. J. B. (2011). "Lepidoptera of gumland heaths—a threatened and rare ecosystem of northern New Zealand". New Zealand Entomologist. 34 (1): 67–76.
