Orocrambus machaeristes

Meyrick described the adults of this species as follows:

♂♀. 21-24 mm. Head and thorax dark brown mixed with blackish, centre of crown and of thorax anteriorly and in ♀ face whitish. Palpi blackish-fuscous, whitish internally. Antennae dark fuscous. Abdomen dark fuscous, somewhat whitish-sprinkled. Forewings elongate, moderately dilated, costa hardly arched, apex obtuse, termen rather oblique, straight, rounded beneath; brown, more or less mixed with dark grey and grey-whitish (more strongly in ♀); an ochreous-white median longitudinal streak from base to 3⁄5, dilated and obliquely truncate posteriorly, edged beneath by a thick blackish streak which curves up round posterior extremity, where it is interrupted by interneural lines of ground colour, and continued as a series of diminishing spots to near costa; a black subdorsal streak from base to 1⁄3; a curved series of blackish marks on veins from 4⁄5 of costa to tornus: cilia grey, with darker basal shade, tips ochreous-whitish. Hind-wings dark grey, becoming blackish-grey towards termen; cilia as in fore-wings. The wingspan of the adult moth ranges between 19 and 25 mm. Hudson pointed out that this species is varies considerably in the extent of the whitish speckling on the fore-wings near the termen, but is easily recognised by the narrow wedge-shaped white central marking.

O. machaeristes is endemic to New Zealand. It has been recorded from north-west Nelson south along the Southern Alps to Lake Wakatipu.

Adult moths are most commonly on the wing from December until February. It is a day flying moth and is particularly active in hot sunshine.

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