Sestra flexata
Female
Male
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Geometridae
Genus: Sestra
Species:
S. flexata
Binomial name
Sestra flexata
(Walker, 1862)[1]
Synonyms[2]
  • Cidaria flexata Walker, 1862

Sestra flexata, also known as the common fern looper, is a species of moth in the family Geometridae.[3] This species is endemic to New Zealand.

Taxonomy

S. flexata was first described by Francis Walker in 1862 using specimens collected either in Auckland by D. Bolton.[4] Walker originally named the species Cidaria flexata.[2] George Hudson discussed and illustrated this species in his 1928 book The butterflies and moths of New Zealand.[5] The male holotype is held at the Natural History Museum, London.[2]

Description

The pale yellow egg is cylindrical in shape.[6] The larva of this species is coloured dark brown and is 25 to 30 mm long when mature.[7] The larvae is approximately 1 to 1+1⁄4 inch long and is a brownish greenish colour with yellow tones underneath. Down its back is a brown line with two more lines down its sides. It also has a few black markings and a number of short bristles.[6]

Walker described the adult of this species as follows:

Female. Cinereous fawn-colour, ochraceous beneath. Palpi slender, very short, obliquely ascending. Abdomen yellowish. Forewings acute, subfalcate, with a blackish shade on nearly half the middle space and along the exterior border, which is distinctly angular. Hind wings yellowish, without markings; fore part of the exterior border slightly truncated. Length of the body 6 lines; of the wings 16 lines.[4]

Hudson described the adults of this species as follows:

The expansion of the wings is from 1+1⁄4 to 1+3⁄8 inches. The fore-wings are pale plum-colour; there is an indistinct, curved, brownish transverse line near the base; a straight dark brown line across the middle, and a curved series of brownish dots beyond the middle; the apex is pointed, and the termen has a strong projection a little above the middle. The hind-wings are ochreous, with a series of minute brownish dots across the middle.[5]

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand.[1] This species is found throughout New Zealand including the North, South, Stewart and Chatham Islands.[6]

Host species

The larval hosts of this species are Pteris macilenta and Histiopteris incisa.[7] It has been collected by beating the latter fern.[6]

Behaviour

The older larvae of this species feed at night.[7] When disturbed the larva will drop to the ground.[7] Adults of this species pollinate Leptospermum scoparium.[8] The adult moths are nocturnal, are attracted to light and on the wing from September until March.[7][6]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sestra flexata.
  1. 1 2 "NZOR Name Details - Sestra flexata (Walker, 1862)". www.nzor.org.nz. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  2. 1 2 3 John Stewart Dugdale (23 September 1988). "Lepidoptera - annotated catalogue, and keys to family-group taxa". Fauna of New Zealand. Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. 14: 169. doi:10.7931/J2/FNZ.14. ISSN 0111-5383. Wikidata Q45083134.
  3. ↑ Gordon, Dennis P., ed. (2010). New Zealand inventory of biodiversity: Kingdom animalia: chaetognatha, ecdysozoa, ichnofossils. Vol. 2. p. 460. ISBN 978-1-877257-93-3. OCLC 973607714. OL 25288394M. Wikidata Q45922947.
  4. 1 2 Francis Walker (1862), List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. Part XXV. Geometrites (continued), London, p. 1421, Wikidata Q115202878{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. 1 2 George Vernon Hudson (1928), The butterflies and moths of New Zealand, Illustrator: George Hudson, Wellington: Ferguson and Osborn Limited, p. 146, LCCN 88133764, OCLC 25449322, Wikidata Q58593286
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 David Edward Gaskin (1966). "The butterflies and common moths of New Zealand". New Zealand: 142–143. Wikidata Q115000559.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Andrew Crowe (2004). Life-Size Guide to New Zealand Native Ferns: Featuring the unique caterpillars which feed on them. p. 19. ISBN 0-14-301924-4. Wikidata Q115211440.
  8. ↑ Richard B. Primack (July 1983). "Insect pollination in the New Zealand mountain flora". New Zealand Journal of Botany. 21 (3): 317–333. doi:10.1080/0028825X.1983.10428561. ISSN 0028-825X. Wikidata Q54669862.


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