Pararrhaptica capucina (Walsingham)

Austin, Kyhl A. & Rubinoff, Daniel, 2023, Rediscoveries and Presumed Extinctions of Hawaiian Leaf-roller Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), Proceedings of the Hawaiian Entomological Society 55, pp. 11-27 : 15

Pararrhaptica capucina (Walsingham)

Presumed extinct

This species was described from two females: the holotype collected in 1893 at 4000 ft on Molokaʻi and a questionably associated paratype collected in 1892 at 3000 ft near Kona, Hawaiʻi island ( Walsingham 1907). The two specimens are likely not conspecific, as most Pararrhaptica appear to be single island endemics. Several other high islands host similar-looking Pararrhaptica , including P. chlorippa (Meyrick) on Oʻahu (see below).However,in recent years on Molokaʻi we have collected a species very similar to the type of P. capucina in genitalia but externally more closely resembling P. longiplicatus (Walsingham) , described from Maui, suggesting that perhaps only one species is involved and that the holotype of P. capucina is just an unusual color form of a more widespread Maui Nui species.