Thyrocopa
Encyclopedia
Thyrocopa is a genus
of oecophorid
moth
endemic to Hawaii
. The taxon
has approximately forty species
, including some flightless
species.
species occur at very high altitudes in Hawaii and female Agrotis from New Zealand
are sometimes brachypterous
, brachyptery in both sexes of Lepidoptera
species is rare and is usually limited to wind
-battered habitat
s, often southern oceanic island
s and sparsely vegetated areas where the moths locomote
by jumping. Thyrocopa is the only genus of flightless alpine
in the Hawaiian Islands
.
Having studied males and females of two different species (Thyrocopa apatela
and Thyrocopa kikaelekea
), researchers at University of California, Berkeley
concluded that they had not evolved from a flightless common ancestor nor had they dispersed to new habitats after becoming flightless. Rather, each was descended from a flying ancestor
but had separately undergone wing reduction and evolved
flightlessness in a case of parallel evolution
occurring in less than 1 million years. The adaptation is thought to be a response to specific environmental pressures such as scattered food resources, lack of predation
, high winds, and low temperatures that elicit loss of flight. Their hypothesis
is supported by both molecular and morphological
evidence.
at the University of Bristol
described most larva
e of this genus as generalist
feeders that eat decaying
leaf
tissue
and generally hide in webby frass
structures they make themselves. The larva of an undescribed species has a slightly different appearance from the generalist species and seems to be a specialist borer in Broussaisia arguta, a perennial
native-Hawaiian relative of the Hydrangea
.
At 20°C in the laboratory, specimens stayed larvae for 2–20 weeks and remained in pupa
form for 2-8, a range in development time indicative of a number of species being kept together in the study.
The larvae have been collected on a wide variety of host plants (most of them endemic to Hawaii) including maile
(Alyxia oliviformis), painiu (Astelia argyrocoma), ākōlea (Athyrium microphyllum), Carex
spp., lapalapa (Cheirodendron platyphyllum
), pilo (Coprosma
elliptica), koi (Coprosma kauensis), ukiuki (Dianella sandwicensis), uluhe (Dicranopteris linearis
), Dryopteris
spp., naenae ula (Dubautia raillardioides), Elaphoglossum spp., manono (Hedyotis terminalis), kakaemoa (Melicope
clusiifolia), ōhia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha
), kōlea (Myrsine punctata), kōpiko (Psychotria
spp.), sawtooth blackberry (Rubus argutus), hoi kuahiwi (Smilax
melastomifolia), pūkiawe (Styphelia tameiameiae
), and ohelo kau laau (Vaccinium
calycinum).
:
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of oecophorid
Oecophoridae
Oecophoridae is a family of small moths in the superfamily Gelechioidea. The phylogeny and systematics of gelechoid moths are still not fully resolved, and the circumscription of the Oecophoridae is strongly affected by this....
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...
endemic to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. The taxon
Taxon
|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...
has approximately forty species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
, including some flightless
Brachypterous
Brachyptery is an anatomical condition meaning that an animal has very reduced, non-functional wings. Such as animal may be described by the adjective "brachypterous"....
species.
Adults
Although some AgrotisAgrotis
Agrotis is a genus of moths of the Noctuidae family. A number of the species of this genus are extinct.Many of the species are of great importance as cutworms, major agricutural pests whose larvae hide by day and emerge at night to feed. The name cutworm refers to the habit of the larvae, of...
species occur at very high altitudes in Hawaii and female Agrotis from 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...
are sometimes brachypterous
Brachypterous
Brachyptery is an anatomical condition meaning that an animal has very reduced, non-functional wings. Such as animal may be described by the adjective "brachypterous"....
, brachyptery in both sexes of Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
species is rare and is usually limited to wind
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
-battered habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
s, often southern oceanic island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
s and sparsely vegetated areas where the moths locomote
Animal locomotion
Animal locomotion, which is the act of self-propulsion by an animal, has many manifestations, including running, swimming, jumping and flying. Animals move for a variety of reasons, such as to find food, a mate, or a suitable microhabitat, and to escape predators...
by jumping. Thyrocopa is the only genus of flightless alpine
Alpine climate
Alpine climate is the average weather for a region above the tree line. This climate is also referred to as mountain climate or highland climate....
in the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
.
Having studied males and females of two different species (Thyrocopa apatela
Thyrocopa apatela
Thyrocopa apatela, , is a species of brachypterous moth from Maui. Hawaii....
and Thyrocopa kikaelekea
Thyrocopa kikaelekea
Thyrocopa kikaelekea, a species of flightless moth from Hawaii in genus Thyrocopa, was recently discovered by entomologists at University of California, Berkeley and described in a 2008 paper....
), researchers at University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
concluded that they had not evolved from a flightless common ancestor nor had they dispersed to new habitats after becoming flightless. Rather, each was descended from a flying ancestor
Insect flight
Insects are the only group of invertebrates known to have evolved flight. Insects possess some remarkable flight characteristics and abilities, still far superior to attempts by humans to replicate their capabilities. Even our understanding of the aerodynamics of flexible, flapping wings and how...
but had separately undergone wing reduction and evolved
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
flightlessness in a case of parallel evolution
Parallel evolution
Parallel evolution is the development of a similar trait in related, but distinct, species descending from the same ancestor, but from different clades.-Parallel vs...
occurring in less than 1 million years. The adaptation is thought to be a response to specific environmental pressures such as scattered food resources, lack of predation
Predation
In ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey . Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of its prey and the eventual absorption of the prey's tissue through consumption...
, high winds, and low temperatures that elicit loss of flight. Their hypothesis
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι – hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
is supported by both molecular and morphological
Morphology (biology)
In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....
evidence.
Larvae
An entomologistEntomology
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...
at the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
described most larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e of this genus as generalist
Generalist
Generalist may refer to:* a person with a wide array of knowledge, the opposite of which is a specialist.* a physician who is focused on primary care and is not a specialist in a certain medical field...
feeders that eat decaying
Decomposition
Decomposition is the process by which organic material is broken down into simpler forms of matter. The process is essential for recycling the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biome. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death...
leaf
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
tissue
Tissue (biology)
Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. A tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function. These are called tissues because of their identical functioning...
and generally hide in webby frass
Frass
Frass is the fine powdery material phytophagous insects pass as waste after digesting plant parts. It causes plants to excrete chitinase due to high chitin levels, it is a natural bloom stimulant, and has high nutrient levels. Frass is known to have abundant amoeba, beneficial bacteria, and fungi...
structures they make themselves. The larva of an undescribed species has a slightly different appearance from the generalist species and seems to be a specialist borer in Broussaisia arguta, a perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
native-Hawaiian relative of the Hydrangea
Hydrangea
Hydrangea is a genus of about 70 to 75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia and North and South America. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Japan, and Korea...
.
At 20°C in the laboratory, specimens stayed larvae for 2–20 weeks and remained in pupa
Pupa
A pupa is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation. The pupal stage is found only in holometabolous insects, those that undergo a complete metamorphosis, going through four life stages; embryo, larva, pupa and imago...
form for 2-8, a range in development time indicative of a number of species being kept together in the study.
The larvae have been collected on a wide variety of host plants (most of them endemic to Hawaii) including maile
Maile
Alyxia oliviformis, known as Maile in Hawaiian, is a species of flowering plant in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae, that is native to Hawaii. It grows as either a twining liana, scandent shrub, or small erect shrub, and is one of the few vines that are endemic to the islands. The scientific...
(Alyxia oliviformis), painiu (Astelia argyrocoma), ākōlea (Athyrium microphyllum), Carex
Carex
Carex is a genus of plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges. Other members of the Cyperaceae family are also called sedges, however those of genus Carex may be called "true" sedges, and it is the most species-rich genus in the family. The study of Carex is known as...
spp., lapalapa (Cheirodendron platyphyllum
Cheirodendron platyphyllum
Cheirodendron platyphyllum, also known as Lapalapa, is a species of flowering plant in the ginseng family, Araliaceae, that is endemic to the islands of Oahu and Kauai in Hawaii. It is a small tree, reaching a height of and a trunk diameter of . Lapalapa inhabits wet forests and bogs at...
), pilo (Coprosma
Coprosma
Coprosma is a genus of 108 species that are found in New Zealand , Hawaii , Borneo, Java, New Guinea, islands of the Pacific Ocean to Australia and the Juan Fernández Is. Many species are small shrubs with tiny evergreen leaves, but a few are small trees and have much larger leaves...
elliptica), koi (Coprosma kauensis), ukiuki (Dianella sandwicensis), uluhe (Dicranopteris linearis
Dicranopteris linearis
Dicranopteris linearis is a common species of fern known by many common names, including Old World forked fern and uluhe . It is one of the most widely distributed ferns of the wet Old World tropics and adjacent regions, including Polynesia and the Pacific...
), Dryopteris
Dryopteris
Dryopteris , commonly called wood ferns, male ferns, and buckler ferns, is a genus of about 250 species of ferns with distribution in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in eastern Asia. Many of the species have stout, slowly creeping rootstocks that form a crown,...
spp., naenae ula (Dubautia raillardioides), Elaphoglossum spp., manono (Hedyotis terminalis), kakaemoa (Melicope
Melicope
Melicope is a genus of about 230 species of shrubs and trees in the family Rutaceae, occurring from the Hawaiian Islands across the Pacific to tropical Asia, Australia and New Zealand...
clusiifolia), ōhia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha
Metrosideros polymorpha
The ōhia lehua is a species of flowering evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that is endemic to the six largest islands of Hawaii. It is a highly variable tree, being tall in favorable situations, and much smaller when growing in boggy soils or on basalt...
), kōlea (Myrsine punctata), kōpiko (Psychotria
Psychotria
Psychotria is a plant genus of 1900 species in the family Rubiaceae. Members of the genus are low trees in tropical forests. The distinction between Psychotria and the genus Cephaelis are not well known and many species were formerly placed there....
spp.), sawtooth blackberry (Rubus argutus), hoi kuahiwi (Smilax
Smilax
Smilax is a genus of about 300-350 species, found in temperate zones, tropics and subtropics worldwide. In China for example about 80 are found , while there are 20 in North America north of Mexico...
melastomifolia), pūkiawe (Styphelia tameiameiae
Styphelia tameiameiae
Styphelia tameiameiae, known as Pūkiawe in the Hawaiian language, is a species of flowering plant in the heather family, Ericaceae, that is native to the Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands. The specific epithet honors King Kamehameha I, who formed the Kingdom of Hawaii. It grows as a tree up to tall...
), and ohelo kau laau (Vaccinium
Vaccinium
Vaccinium is a genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the plant Family Ericaceae. The fruit of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry or whortleberry, lingonberry or cowberry, and huckleberry...
calycinum).
Species
The genus contains the following speciesSpecies
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
:
Photo links
- http://www.umwestern.edu/shares/envirosci_share/laurie/lepidoptera/thyrocopa.htm University of BristolUniversity of BristolThe University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
- http://www.hear.org/starr/hiinsects/images/thumbnails/html/thyrocopa_sp.htm Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk: Insects of Hawaii
- http://www.hear.org/starr/hiinsects/images/thumbnails/html/thyrocopa_apatela.htm Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk: Insects of Hawaii
- http://www.morphbank.net/Browse/ByImage/?tsn=999005049 MorphBank Images