Micropardalis doroxena is a species of 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...

 belonging to the family 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 ....

. It was described by Edward Meyrick

Edward Meyrick

Edward Meyrick FRS was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern Microlepidoptera systematics....

 in 1888. It is endemic to the North Island of 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...

.

Adults have a black wing margin decorated with shining silver spots and various diagonal bands. It is thought to represent a face-on view of a jumping spider. Instead of waiting motionlessly, it is thought the spider would be tempted to signal to an image of another spider, thus allowing the moth to escape predation.

Original Description

Female wingspan 11 mm. Head and palpi light ochreous, sides of crown brown. Antennae dark fuscous, annulated with whitish-ochreous. Thorax ochreous-brown. Abdomen dark grey. Legs dark grey, ringed with pale ochreous. Forewings oblong, costa abruptly bent near base, thence gently arched, apex round-pointed, hindmargin straight, very oblique; neuration quite as in P. chalcophanes, but 7 and 8 separate; pale shining golden; two rather narrow oblique coppery-bronze fasciæ from costa near base and at ⅓, confluent on inner margin before middle; a straight rather narrow whitish-purplish fascia, margined with coppery-bronze, from middle of costa to inner margin beyond middle; a whitish-purplish black-margined transverse spot from costa at ⅔, reaching half across wing; a black semi-annular mark, its extremities touching costa at ⅘ and apex, marked with three shining whitish-purplish spots, and including a spot of ground-colour which contains a black costal dot; a semi-oval black anal blotch, not marginal except at extremities, containing three shining whitish-purplish spots near lower edge, and one in a small projection on upper edge: cilia pale golden, with blackish apical, median, and anal spots. Hindwings dark purple-grey; cilia grey.

Auckland (Waitakere Ranges), in December. One specimen amongst the kauri forest. This species is very interesting from the strong tendency of the markings to approach those of Glyphipteryx.