Maoricrambus [SEP] parent taxon
Maoricrambus
Maoricrambus is a genus of moths of the family Crambidae. It contains only one species, Maoricrambus oncobolus, which is endemic to New Zealand. This species is classified as Nationally Endangered by the Department of Conservation.
Taxonomy.
"M. oncobolus" was named by Edward Meyrick in 1885 and described using a specimen collected at Castle Hill Basin, now part of the Kura Tāwhiti Conservation Area near Arthur's Pass. In 1895 when listing the species George Hampson misspelt it resulting in the synonym for the species of "
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of