Carposina iophaea

Carposina iophaea is a moth of the Carposinidae family. It is endemic to New Zealand.

The wingspan is 18–19 mm. The head, palpi, and thorax are dark fuscous irrorated (speckled) with whitish. The abdomen is grey, while the two basal segments are whitish-ochreous. The forewings are elongate, narrow, the costa gently arched, the apex round-pointed and the termen almost straight. They are dark fuscous irrorated with whitish, sometimes more or less mixed with pale ochreous. There is a series of small dark spots along the costa. The hindwings are grey.

The larvae feed on seeds of Prumnopitys taxifolia. There is one larva per seed. In the late spring of the year following fertilisation, the contents of many immature seeds of the host plant are eaten and these seeds fall to the ground. As the seeds remaining on the tree increase in size, predation and shedding of damaged seeds continue. By February of the following year, just before the outer tissues of the remaining seeds turn black and juicy, the larvae cease eating their way into the seeds, presumably because the maturing inner coats are too thick and hard. They then eat the sugar-rich outer wall tissues before pupating.^[2]

References

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