The world's thinnest caterpillar? A new genus and species of Batrachedridae (Lepidoptera) from Sporadanthus ferrugineus (Restionacea), a threatened New Zealand plant

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Hoare ◽  
John Dugdale ◽  
Corinne Watts

Houdinia flexilissima, gen. nov., sp. nov. is described from peatlands in the North Island of New Zealand. The extremely narrow larvae mine and pupate in the living stems of Sporadanthus ferrugineus de Lange, Heenan & Clarkson, (Restionaceae), a large endemic rush. Eggs, larvae, pupae and adults are fully described and illustrated. The systematic placement of this autapomorphic taxon is discussed in detail, and it is assigned within Gelechioidea to Batrachedridae on the basis of characters shared with a taxon currently placed in Batrachedra. Because of its morphological distinctiveness, as well as threats to the habitat of its very local host plant, H. flexilissima, gen. nov., sp. nov. is considered a species of high conservation status.

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aino Henssen ◽  
G. Kantvilas

AbstractThe monotypic genus Wawea gen. nov. is described as a second genus in the family Arctomiaceae. The single species, Wawea fruticulosa sp. nov., is characterized by its fruticose habit, rugose and corticate lobes, secondarily multidivided and coalescing apothecia, two-celled spores, and by the unique initial stage of ascocarp ontogeny which includes simultaneous development of ascogonia as well as short-celled, branched conldiophores producing conidia. W. fruticulosa is widespread in Tasmania and is known also from New Zealand with single collections from the North and South Island. A new pyrenomyceteRhynchomeliola lichenicola sp. nov., parasymbiotic on Wawea fruticulosa, is also described.


2021 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. e20216187
Author(s):  
Barbara Proença ◽  
Valéria Cid Maia

A new gall midge genus, Distinctamyia gen. nov., and a new species Distinctamyia matogrossensis sp. nov. (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae) are herein described and illustrated (larvae, pupal exuviae, male and female). The new species induces conical, green, hairy and one chambered galls on leaf and bud of Simarouba amara Aubl. (Simaroubaceae). Gall-inducer specimens, samples of gall and host plant were collected at Parque Nacional da Chapada dos Guimarães, in the state of Mato Grosso (Midwestern Brazil).


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Boessenecker ◽  
R. Ewan Fordyce

The early evolution of toothless baleen whales (Chaeomysticeti) remains elusive despite a robust record of Eocene-Oligocene archaeocetes and toothed mysticetes. Eomysticetids, a group of archaic longirostrine and putatively toothless baleen whales fill in a crucial morphological gap between well-known toothed mysticetes and more crownward Neogene Mysticeti. A historically important but perplexing cetacean is “Mauicetus” lophocephalus (upper Oligocene South Island, New Zealand). The discovery of new skulls and skeletons of eomysticetids from the Oligocene Kokoamu Greensand and Otekaike Limestone permit a redescription and modern reinterpretation of “Mauicetus” lophocephalus, and indicating that this species may have retained adult teeth. A new genus and species, Tokarahia kauaeroa, is erected on the basis of a well-preserved subadult to adult skull with mandibles, tympanoperiotics, and cervical and thoracic vertebrae, ribs, sternum, and forelimbs from the Otekaike Limestone (>25.2 Ma). “Mauicetus” lophocephalus is relatively similar and recombined as Tokarahia lophocephalus. Phylogenetic analysis supports inclusion of Tokarahia within the Eomysticetidae alongside Eomysticetus, Micromysticetus, Yamatocetus, and Tohoraata, and strongly supports monophyly of Eomysticetidae. Tokarahia lacked extreme rostral kinesis of extant Mysticeti and primitively retained a delicate archaeocete-like posterior mandible and synovial temporomandibular joint, suggesting that Tokarahia was capable of at most, limited lunge feeding in contrast to extant Balaenopteridae, and utilized an alternative as-yet unspecified feeding strategy.


Nematology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerrie Davies ◽  
Zeng Qi Zhao ◽  
Brett Alexander ◽  
Ian Riley

AbstractA new genus and species of anguinid nematode, Litylenchus coprosma gen. n., sp. n., was recovered from leaves of Coprosma repens A. Rich. from an amenity planting in Wellington, New Zealand. The genus is characterised by having slender males and slender or semi-obese females, pharynx with a weak non-muscular median bulb, a terminal bulb containing the pharyngeal glands, female with a single gonad having a quadricolumella and post-uterine sac; male with arcuate spicules and the bursa arising 1-2 anal body diam. anterior to the cloacal aperture and extending nearly to the tail tip, and does not induce galls, only foliar chlorosis. The species is characterised by having a short, robust stylet with conus forming ca 40% of stylet length and three well developed rounded knobs, secretory/excretory pore opening posterior to the nerve ring, terminal bulb abutting the intestine, and tail tip of variable form. Molecular phylogeny of near full length small subunit, D2/D3 expansion segments of the large subunit and internal transcribed spacer rRNA genes support the description of L. coprosma gen. n., sp. n. as a new genus and species.


1994 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1397 ◽  
Author(s):  
HES Clark ◽  
DG McKnight

Damnaster tasmani, gen. et sp. nov., belonging in the deep-water asteroid family Porcellanasteridae, is described from five stations (nine specimens) to the west of New Zealand, between 35° and 46° S, 156° and 167° E, in depths of 1647 - 4868 m.


Zootaxa ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 684 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
RODNEY A. BRAY

Steringovermes notacanthi, a new genus and species of fellodistomine digenean, is described from the deep-sea spiny eel Notacanthus bonaparte from below 1,000m depth in the north eastern Atlantic. It differs from other related genera in the unique combination of a V-shaped excretory vesicle, multilobate, mainly post-testicular ovary and extensive vitelline fields extending into both the foreand hindbody. In addition, the fellodistomine Olssonium turneri Bray & Gibson, 1980 is reported for the first time from a fish not of the genus Alepocephalus, namely the alepocephalid Narcetes stomias.


Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4434 (3) ◽  
pp. 441
Author(s):  
OWEN D. SEEMAN ◽  
MARIA MINOR ◽  
MICHELLE R. BAKER ◽  
DAVID EVANS WALTER

The discovery of a new genus of Heatherellidae in New Zealand has led us to revise this enigmatic family and its constituent genera. Aheatherella n. gen., based on A. mira n. sp. from the North Island of New Zealand, lacks some of the derived character states that link the Australian Heatherella, most notably the lack of sexual dimorphism in the dorsal shields and in the presence of peritremes in adult Aheatherella. Heatherella osleri n. sp. is described from New South Wales, extending the distribution of this genus beyond Queensland. New collection records of H. callimaulos and a key to the genera and species of the family are provided. We propose that the Heatherellidae—previously placed in its own cohort outside the Gamasina—are best considered a superfamily of gamasine mites within the subcohort Epicriiae. 


Author(s):  
Daphne E. Lee ◽  
Neda Motchurova-Dekova

ABSTRACTA new rhynchonellide brachiopod has been collected from the Kahuitara Tuff (Campanian–Maastrichtian) of Pitt Island, Chatham Islands, New Zealand. Brachiopods are extremely rare in Cretaceous rocks from New Zealand, and this new genus and species is unlike any other rhynchonellide known from Australasia or elsewhere. Chathamirhynchia kahuitara is distinguished by its small size, strong ribbing, and well-developed sulciplicate folding, and internally by a large, robust cardinal process and raduliform crura. The shell structure of C. kahuitara is shown to be of typical fine fibrous ‘rhynchonellidine’ type. This brachiopod was probably strongly attached to volcanic rock or shells in a shallow-water, high-energy environment. Implications for the biogeography of brachiopods during the Late Cretaceous are briefly discussed.


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