🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨

Aenigmatinea glatzella: The moth is small, about the size of a five cent piece when its wings are outstretched, and looks more like a caddis-fly than a moth. Although tiny, they are very beautiful: males look as though they’ve been sprinkled with gold dust, females are metallic purple, and both have feathery edges fringing their wings.

The genus name, Aenigmatinea, is well-chosen (it contains the word 'enigma'): there are several puzzling things about this moth that made it difficult to place in an evolutionary framework. Its wings and genitalia showed it to be primitive. The question was how primitive. Even the most primitive moths have jaws, and one of the first steps in the evolution of ‘advanced’ moths and butterflies is the development of a tongue. Aenigmatinea’s mouthparts are almost entirely reduced; it has neither jaws nor tongue.

It lives on Southern Cypress-pine trees (Callitris gracilis), a very ancient element of our flora dating back to the supercontinent Gondwana.

The adult moths are short-lived. In just one day they emerge from their cocoons, mate, females lay their eggs, and then die.