On today’s show we learn about the Enigma Moth, a critically endangered insect native to Kangaroo Island off the southern coast of Australia.
Rough Transcript
Intro 00:05
Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.
On today’s show we consider the Enigma Moth.
Species Information 02:05
The Enigma Moth is a critically endangered insect native to Kangaroo Island off the southern coast of Australia. Its scientific name is Aenigmatinea glatzella and it was first described in 2015.
Description
The Enigma Moth is monotypic, meaning it is the only species in its genus. The only Aenigmatinea is our Enigma Moth, singular, enough unlike moth to warrant its own category. They are an ancient species, with a lineage that branched off very early in the evolutionary history of moth and butterfly, likely during the Mesozoic Era, over 200 million years ago.
Enigma Moth are so tiny; about a quarter of an inch long, with a third of an inch wingspan. So like the size of your pinky fingernail.
They have a wildly vibrant appearance. Their wings, two forewings and two hindwings, are covered with metallic yellow gold and purple iridescent scales that appear to glitter in direct sunlight. And the wings are fringed with unusual, feathery, hair-like scales.
Their head is also yellow, and bald, this is a little uncommon too; it is not covered with scales save for a few stringy wispy scale patches. They have two short antenna, near the front of their head; two dark eyes, one on each side of the head, and basically no mouthparts. They do not have mandibles, jaws, or a proboscis (the tongue-like structure) we find in most moths and butterflies. They do not have a digestive system. The adult Enigma Moth does not feed.
Reproduction and Lifecycle
So, to understand how that works we need to explore the entirety of their lifecycle.
In late September to late October, Enigma Moth lay their eggs under the leaves of the Southern Cypress-Pine at the very tips of new growing branches. When the eggs hatch, the larva burrows, essentially eats its way through the tree’s new soft green tissues, into the stem. And there it stays. The larvae have no legs, and are incapable of locomotion.
It does have a mouth though and spends roughly a year protected inside the growing stem feeding on the Southern Cypress-Pine’s internal tissues, specifically the underside of the bark which is slowly growing around the larva.
While this sounds like it might be severely detrimental to the tree’s health, let’s recall how tiny we’re talking, a single instance of grazing by like a goat or a rabbit would consume more plant tissue than our Enigma Moth larva would in the whole year of its development.
So the larva is in the stem, feeding, growing, storing energy reserves, and after about 12 months, October of the following year, it pupates and metamorphizes, then breaks out through the Pine’s bark, emerging as a fully formed adult Enigma Moth. A fully formed adult Enigma Moth that has only 24 hours to live.
They must discover flight, find a mate, attract that mate, copulate, and lay eggs, all in roughly one day, before their stored energy reserves run out, and they die.
This is an evolutionary strategy refined to like fundamental components. No need for complex feeding and digestive systems, no need for social or mate bonds, no need for parental care, no need for the larva to have legs. This is remarkably streamlined. And if you’re like me, and perhaps still holding some skepticism about the efficacy of this lifecycle adaption, let’s remember it has been working for the Enigma Moth for at least 200 million years.
In The Dream
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In the dream,
To be present to the urgency of living.
To, at least in the periphery of my mind, always be grappling with the deep unlikelyhood of our existing at all.
Of our planet.
A planet of water and breathing and a protective magnetosphere, a planet where I have lips and lungs and can tell you I love you,
A planet where a tiny moth at the bottom of the world, every october, carries a few hundred million year history into its first and only day.
The odds are insurmountably stacked against this and yet, I am here, and I can sing, and my kin can germinate after fire, can swim aside magma in the oceans depths, can regenerate their tail, my kin can fly.
For me, this is not the consequence of god, or gods, the designs of fate, but it is for sure, a miracle.
In the dream.
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Habitat
The Enigma Moth is native to Kangaroo Island. Kangaroo Island is a 1700 sq mile island, about 10 miles from the Australian mainland, in the Great Australian Bight; this is a large oceanic bay off the coast of South Australia.
The Enigma Moth is found in three locations in eastern Kangaroo Island only in and near stands of Southern Cypress-Pine. The moth only lays eggs on, and its larva only develop in, this single species of tree.
The Southern Cypress-Pine, too, is an ancient species, with evidence in the fossil record dating from roughly 35 million years ago, so the moth and the tree have a really long co-evolutionary relationship. And today the Enigma Moth is wholly reliant on the Southern Cypress-Pine for survival.
And so, our Moth’s range is small, confined to these three stands of Southern Cypress-Pine, near the Kangaroo Island coast; a range that is less than 25 sq miles, in total.
This eastern region of Kangaroo Island is a varied landscape, with developed agricultural land to the north and substantial blocks of untouched native vegetation in the south: green expanses and dramatic rocky coastal cliffs interspersed with sandy beaches. This is a Mediterranean climate with summer highs averaging in the upper 70s°F and winter lows in the low 40s°F. The island sees roughly 25 inches of rainfall per year.
Enigma Moth shares its island home with:
Southern Cypress-Pine, Little Penguin, Southern Sea-heath, Silver Banksia, Kangaroo Island Oak-bush, Streaked Arrowgrass, Shiny Bog-rush, Jewel Beetle, Kangaroo Island Assassin Spider, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Golden Whistler, Restless Flycatcher, Little Raven, Marbled Gecko, Limestone Saw-Sedge, Kangaroo Island Glossy Black-Cockatoo, Coast Fanflower, Tammar Wallaby, Tiny Star-bush, Smooth Riceflower, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Kangaroo Island Kangaroo, and many, many more.
Threats
Because the Enigma Moth was just described a decade ago, we have an incomplete record of the threats that have led to its population decline. But because of its existential reliance on the Southern Cypress-Pine we can confidently hypothesize that human habitat encroachment and destruction, specifically land-clearing for agriculture are a primary cause.
Today, continuing development of roads and infrastructure, is not only reducing available habitat but also fragmenting the remaining stands of Southern Cypress-Pine, which isolates the subpopulations of Enigma Moth, limiting genetic diversity.
Human induced climate change and specifically the increased severity of wildfire is an imminent threat. In 2019-2020 a massive bushfire devastated vegetation across Kangaroo Island though fortunately it did not reach the eastern regions of the island and the Enigma Moth’s habitat. But because of the Moth’s extremely limited range, a single out-of-control wildfire could potentially destroy the remaining stands of Southern Cypress-Pine, likely driving the Enigma Moth to extinction.
Conservation
Fortunately some of the Enigma Moth’s habitat is on protected land, one subpopulation lives mostly within a Heritage Agreement site, this a special arrangement where private property is protected and stewarded with local government collaboration, operating similarly to like a protected Nature Reserve.
The governmental org Natural Resources Kangaroo Island has initiated a public awareness campaign, including a citizen science program encouraging locals to report sightings of the Enigma Moth.
And there are broad active, native species and native habitat, private and governmental, conservation programs across Kangaroo Island, that though not directly focused on the Enigma Moth will likely benefit the species, protecting habitat and reforesting indigenous vegetation like their Southern Cypress-Pine.
Nevertheless the Enigma Moth has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2021 and their population is in decline.
Our most recent counts estimate that less than 3000 Enigma Moth remain in the wild.
Citations 21:20
Information for today’s show about the Enigma Moth was compiled from:
Enigma Moth Factsheet. Landscape Board South Australia – https://www.landscape.sa.gov.au/ki/native-plants-and-animals/supporting-biodiversity
Glatz, R. & Young, D.A. 2021. Aenigmatinea glatzella. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T189533430A195997220. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T189533430A195997220.en
Hill, Robert & Scriven, L.J.. (1998). The fossil record of conifers in Australia. Flora of Australia. 48. 527-537. – https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284428816_The_fossil_record_of_conifers_in_Australia
Glatz, R. V., Fagan-Jeffries, E. P., Tetley, S. P. & Austin, A. D. (2022) Enigma moth parasitoid: a new Australian cyclostome genus and species, Ovaustra aurantia Tetley, Glatz & Fagan Jeffries, gen. et sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from Kangaroo Island. Austral Entomology, 61: 420–432. – https://doi.org/10.1111/aen.12627
Taylor, G. S., Braby, M. F., Moir, M. L., Harvey, M. S., Sands, D. P. A., New, T. R., Kitching, R. L., McQuillan, P. B., Hogendoorn, K., Glatz, R. V., Andren, M., Cook, J. M., Henry, S. C., Valenzuela, I., and Weinstein, P. (2018) Strategic national approach for improving the conservation management of insects and allied invertebrates in Australia. Austral Entomology, 57: 124–149. https://doi.org/10.1111/aen.12343
Tensen, N.P., Hilton, D.J., Kallies, A., Milla, L., Rota, J., Wahlberg, N., Wilcox, S.A., Glatz, R.V., Young, D.A., Cocking, G., Edwards, T., Gibbs, G.W. And Halsey, M. (2015), A New Extant Family Of Primitive Moths From Kangaroo Island, Australia, And Its Significance For Understanding Early Lepidoptera Evolution. Systematic Entomology, 40 (1): 5-16. – https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12115
Tressider, V. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. 10 March 2015. Small, beautiful, new and very old: meet the Enigma moth. – https://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/articles/2015/march/small-beautiful-new-and-very-old-meet-the-enigma-moth
Warne, K. National Geographic. January 17, 2020. 60 hours on burning Kangaroo Island. – https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/kangaroo-island-wildfires-dispatch
Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_Island & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aenigmatineidae
Music 22:49
Pledge 27:51
I honor the lifeforce of the Enigma Moth. I will commit its name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.
And so, in the name of the Enigma Moth I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.
I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.
