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SYDENY: Entomologists are excited about a new family of moth discovered on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. So far, the new family contains only a single species—dubbed Aenigmatinea glatzella—that has been observed at only one site on a single type of pine tree.
Richard Glatz, a professional entomologist, and field worker Andy Young made the discovery, which was described earlier this year in the journal Systematic Entomology.
The moth, also called the Enigma moth, sports wings only about four millimeters long and more resembles a caddis-fly than a moth. The females are a striking metallic purple color, while the males are golden.
The moth’s physical characteristics make it something of an evolutionary enigma. Its wings and genitalia are primitive, the authors say, and it has markedly reduced mouth parts with no tongue.
To figure out how the new moth family fits into the evolutionary scheme of things, Glatz and Young sent the only two moths they had collected to Ted Edwards of the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC). Edwards and colleague Douglas Hilton of the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne then sent a specimen to the “guru of primitive moth taxonomy,” Neils Kristensen, at the University of Copenhagen. Kristensen identified it as belonging to a new family of moths. Sadly, Kristensen passed away just a few weeks before the paper describing the new moth was accepted for publication.
