Sabatinca lucilia is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Micropterigidae

Micropterigidae

Micropterigoidea is the superfamily of "mandibulate archaic moths", all placed in the single family Micropterigidae, containing currently about 20 living genera. They are considered the most primitive extant lineage of Lepidoptera ....

 family. It is endemic to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

is about 12 mm. Adults were found on a sunny moss-covered clay-bank. They are on wing in December and January and sometimes come to electric light.

Original description

Wingspan 12 mm. Head, face, and palpi covered with long bronze-brown hair. Antennae purplish tending to brown at tips. Thorax brown, densely covered with long brown hair. Abdomen grey-blackish along sides. Legs ochreous tinged with grey-blackish. Forewings ovate-lanceolate, costa bent abruptly near base, arched, apex less acute than in incongruella; basal area to nearly 1/3 ochreous suffused with ruby banded by abrupt black transverse line; an ochreous-grey band slightly suffused with ruby reaching to nearly 1/2, widening on dorsum; a dark fascia bordered blackish-grey, constricted both sides at middle and narrowed on anal margin; at 2/3 another light grey band slightly tinged with orange but broken in centre by longitudinal blackish stripe; a transverse blackish-bordered ochreus band, beyond which to apex light grey slightly tinged with orange; cilia ochreous with dark-greyish-brown bars in continuation of the dark markings on the wings. Hindwings dark grey suffused with violet, brighter towards apex; cilia dark grey with a few orange hairs.

External links

• Venation of New Zealand Species of Micropterygidae