Homodotis falcata

This species was first described in 1879 by Arthur Gardiner Butler and tentatively placed in the genus Larentia.[4] Butler used a male specimen collected in Dunedin by F. W. Hutton.[2] In 1883 Edward Meyrick, thinking he was describing a new species, named this species Eurydice cymosema.[2] Meyrick synonymised that name in 1884.[2] George Hudson discussed this species under the name Xanthorhoe falcata in his 1928 book The butterflies and moths of New Zealand.[5] Hudson stated that Louis Beethoven Prout believed the holotype specimen to be a large dark form of the species Asaphodes rufescens.[6][5] J. S. Dugdale agreed with Prout, pointing out in his 1988 publication, that the New Zealand Arthropod Collection holds specimens that have coloration ranging from dark, intermediate to light and as a result Dugdale synonymised Asaphodes rufescens with this species.[2] The male holotype is held at the Natural History Museum, London.[2]

Butler described the male holotype specimen as follows:

Allied to L. punctilineata (which it much resembles in colour and markings), but larger and with distinctly falcate primaries; primaries reddish-brown, with the base and a broad central belt dark brown traversed by blackish lines and margined by white dots ; a black discocellular dot; external border blackish, diffused; two or three whitish subapical dots; secondaries silvery-grey with a darker waved central belt formed of parallel dark grey lines, dotted with black upon the abdominal margin, white bordered; a submarginal series of white-bordered grey spots; a marginal series of blackish dots in pairs; fringe pale reddish-brown; abdomen with dorsal pairs of black dashes on each segment ; primaries below grey with darker white-bordered central belt ; costa cream-coloured between the markings ; a zigzag white-bordered subapical dusky stria; secondaries whitish with a broad irregular central belt formed by two blackish limiting lines and two grey intermediate lines; the outer black line distinctly undulated ; a very ill-defined blackish speckled submarginal band; body below testaceous. Expanse of wings 1 inch 3 lines.[4]

H. falcata is similar in appearance to its sister species H. megaspilata but is a slightly larger moth with its forewings having a less distinct hook shape.[7] The depth of colour of the forewings of this moth can vary from specimen to specimen.[2]

This species is endemic to New Zealand.[1] It can be found in the southern parts of the South island and occurs with its similar in appearance sister species H. megaspilata from Dunedin southwards.[7]

Homodotis falcata pair mating in October

The larvae of this species feed on leaf litter.[8] Adults are on the wing most months of the year but more frequently from July to January.[9]