Heliostibes vibratrix

Heliostibes vibratrix is a species of moth in the family Oecophoridae.^[1][2] It is endemic to New Zealand. This species inhabits open mountainside habitat and is known to feed on Nothofagus truncata. Yellow-crowned parakeets predate the larvae of H. vibratrix.

Heliostibes vibratrix
Illustration by George Hudson
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Oecophoridae
Genus:	Heliostibes
Species:	H. vibratrix
Binomial name
Heliostibes vibratrix Meyrick, 1927[1]

Taxonomy

This species was described by Edward Meyrick in 1927 using a specimen collected by George Hudson in January at Mount Arthur at 4000 ft.^[3] The female holotype specimen is held at the Natural History Museum, London.^[1]

Description

Meyrick described the species as follows:

♀ 16 mm. Head and palpi fuscous. Thorax rather darker bronzy-fuscous. Abdomen dark fuscous, ventral surface pale yellow. Forewings suboblong, termen hardly oblique; fuscous, with numerous irregular transverse cloudy dark purplish-fuscous striae; second discal stigma forming a small transverse dark fuscous spot; two slight whitish marks on dorsum about middle: cilia fuscous. Hindwings blackish-grey; cilia grey, basal third dark fuscous.^[3]

Distribution

This species is endemic to New Zealand.^[4]

Habitat and host species

Nothofagus truncata, a host species of H. vibratrix.

This species prefers open mountainside habitat.^[5] The larvae of this species are known to feed on Nothofagus truncata.^[6][7] Larvae are a predated by the Yellow-crowned parakeet.^[8]