Thyrocopa decipiens Walsingham
Creators: name: Medeiros, Matthew J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Oecophoridae
Thyrocopa
Thyrocopa decipiens

description: 9. Thyrocopa decipiens (Walsingham)
(Figs. 21, 60, 74)
Catamempsis decipiens Walsingham, 1907b: 491, plate 14, fig. 6. Type species of Catamempsis.
Lectotype: UNITED STATES: HAWAII: Hawaii Island: Olaa, 2000’ [610 m]: 1 3 (slide 4389 BMNH, wings), Nov 1896, Perkins (BMNH), designated by Zimmerman, 1978: figs. 648, 656 (as “ holotype ”).
Paralectotypes: UNITED STATES: HAWAII: Oahu: Near head of Kawailoa Gulch: 1 Ƥ (slide 2044 BMNH), Apr 1893, Perkins. Hawaii Island: Olaa: 1 Ƥ (slide 3944 BMNH), Sep 1896, Perkins (BMNH).
Thyrocopa decipiens (Walsingham); Zimmerman, 1978: 986, figs. 648, 656, 682, 685.
Diagnosis: The male antennae in Thyrocopa decipiens are conspicuously serrate.
Description: Head: Scales dark brown to brown. Antenna (Fig. 60) ca. 0.6–0.7x forewing length; male flagellomere serrate; female with dense, short, piliform cilia on ventral side of flagellomere, cilia less dense on dorsal side. Labial palpus mottled brown and light brown; third segment ca. 0.5x length of second. Thorax: Light brown to dark brown. Forewing length 16–23 mm; forewing ground color light brown mottled with a small amount of darker brown but area near costal margin of wing with streak of brown, usually large and distinctive, sometimes weak; evenly spaced spots on distal half of costa and along termen at vein endings sometimes present. Hindwing light brown to very light brown, fringe very light brown. Abdomen: Brown to very light brown. Male genitalia (Fig. 74) with uncus deeply apically cleft; sacculus short, tapering to sharp apex. Female genitalia unknown.
Food plants: Freycinetia arborea (Hawaiian = ieie) (Swezey 1936a).
Flight period: Year-round.
Distribution: Oahu (possibly extinct), Molokai, Maui, Hawaii Island.
Remarks: Swezey (1936a: 191) wrote, “The caterpillars of this gelechiid moth feed in the tips of branches, eating the leaves of the unexpanded spindle. There may be a dozen or more feeding somewhat gregariously...”
Additional material examined: UNITED STATES: HAWAII: 1 Ƥ, 1910, P. (BMNH); Oahu: Pacific Heights: 1 3 (slide 56), 11 Nov 1918, O.H. Swezey (BPBM). Molokai: Pepepae Bog Trail, “Kamakou 4:” 1 3 (slide LA25), 6 Jul 2005, D. Rubinoff (UHIM). Maui: Kipahulu Valley (E. Maui), below Palikea: 1 3, 4–6 Jul 1980, S.L. Montgomery (BPBM); W. Maui, Honakohau, 900 m: 6 3, 19 Mar 1972, J.L. Gressitt (BPBM); W. Maui, Puu Kukui, 850 m: 2 3, 30 Mar 1972, J.L. Gressitt (BPBM).
Hawaii Island: 1300’ [396 m], S. Hilo District, Upper Waiakea FR, Stainback Highway: 1 3, 1 Aug 1976, K. & E. Sattler; 3000’ [914 m], S. Hilo District, Upper Waiakea FR, Stainback Highway: 1 3, 9 Jul 1976, K. & E. Sattler; Stainback Hwy ca. 2600’ [792 m] (on dead leaf of Pritchardia beccariana): 1 3, Mar 1999, collector unknown (BPBM).
description: Published as part of Medeiros, Matthew J., 2009, A revision of the endemic Hawaiian genus Thyrocopa (Lepidoptera: Xyloryctidae: Xyloryctinae), pp. 1-47 in Zootaxa 2202 on pages 18-19, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.275119