Brenthia elachista
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Brenthia elachista | ||||||||||||
| Walsingham , 1900 |
Brenthia Elachista is a poorly understood species of butterfly from the family of choreutidae (Choreutidae) formed on the to Australia belonging Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean endemic is. It is only known of six specimenscollectedby Charles William Andrews in 1898. Nothing is known about their habitat and way of life.
features
Brenthia elachista is one of the smallest species in the genus. The wingspan is 6 mm. The ring-shaped hairy antennae are dark bronze and whitish towards the base. Above the outer half, the color turns black. The white, ring-shaped hairy palpi stand out. There are two small, dark bronze-colored attachments on each joint. The head and thorax are bronze-brown. The crew in the basic color forewings are plentiful speckled with brownish bronze scales. Crossed lines run across the outer half.
A short, bronze-brown basal spot, which is wider on the costa than on the dorsum, is bordered on the outside by a light band. Beyond that, the color of the wings turns bronze-brown. There are tiny gray-brown speckles at the outer end of the vane. On the overlying costa there is a white spot followed by a blue and metallic purple spot. The apex and the terms (the outermost wing edges) are broadly decorated in a velvety black. The inner edge is golden brown and the outer edge is covered with shiny and metallic shimmering speckles, the first two being silvery white in black a little above the apex and the others merging more or less in a narrow band around the middle of the terms with isolated metallic scales underneath. The fringed scales are translucent, greenish gray on their basal half and light bronze-brown on the outside. The hind wings are bronze-brown-gray with an oblique, white transverse stripe that runs from the costa to below the middle at a third of the base. In the direction of the apex and terms there are some shiny metallic-purple spots. The fringed scales of the hind wings are brownish gray and striped white through their center below the apex. The abdomen is bronze-brown. The legs are white with bronze-brownish spots above the tibia and tarsi .
Hazard and protection
Brenthia elachista is currently not covered by the IUCN . This butterfly species has been thought to be lost since it was discovered at the end of the 19th century.
literature
- Lord Walsingham: Micro-Lepidoptera In: Charles W. Andrews: A Monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean), Physical Features and Geology , 1900, pp. 76-77
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ John Woinarski: The Fate of Christmas Island Nature In: A Bat's End: The Christmas Island Pipistrelle and Modern Extinction in Australia Csiro Publishing, 2018, ISBN 978-1-486-30863-7 , p. 91