Ichneutica cana facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ichneutica cana |
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| Female | |
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| Male | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Superfamily: | Noctuoidea |
| Family: | Noctuidae |
| Genus: | Ichneutica |
| Species: |
I. cana
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| Binomial name | |
| Ichneutica cana Howes, 1914
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| Synonyms | |
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The Ichneutica cana is a type of moth that belongs to the Noctuidae family. This family is also known as the "owlet moths." This special moth lives only in New Zealand. When a plant or animal lives only in one place, we say it is endemic to that area.
Discovering the Moth
The Ichneutica cana moth was first found and described in 1914. A scientist named George Howes was the first to study it. He found a single male moth in the Garvie Mountains, which are close to Lake Wakatipu in a region called Otago.
Later, in 1928, another scientist named George Hudson included this moth in his famous book. The book was called The Butterflies and Moths of New Zealand. It helped people learn more about many different insects.
In 1988, John S. Dugdale agreed that this moth belonged to the Ichneutica group. More recently, in 2019, Robert J. B. Hoare also confirmed its place in the Ichneutica group. This was part of his big study of New Zealand's owlet moths.
What Does It Look Like?
The Ichneutica cana moth is mostly grey. Its face and head are grey, but the front part of its head is a lighter grey. Its body is covered in long, dark-grey hairs. The part of its body where the wings attach is quite wide.
The front wings of the moth are grey. They have light grey lines and a few darker spots. There is a light grey line near the bottom of the wing. Another jagged, light grey line is about one-fifth of the way up the wing. It has strong zig-zags near the bottom edge.
You might see two faint, light grey spots on the front wings. One is a roundish spot, and the other is kidney-shaped. A dark grey patch separates these two spots. Another jagged, light grey line crosses the wing about three-quarters of the way up. This line bends towards the outer edge of the wing.
The outer edge of the front wings is light grey. It has a darker shadow at its base. There are also faint grey marks along the veins of the wings. The fuzzy hairs along the edge of the wings are short. They have alternating patches of light grey and dark grey.
The back wings are light grey with a slight yellowish tint. They have a darker band across the middle. There is also a slightly wavy band closer to the outer edge. The very edge of the back wings and their fuzzy hairs are grey-white.
If you look at the underside of the moth's wings, they are grey. They also have a faint yellowish tint. You can see a clear, uneven dark-grey line across both wings. This line is about three-quarters of the way across.
