Dasyuris leucobathra is a species of moth in the family Geometridae. This species was first described by Edward Meyrick in 1911. It is endemic to New Zealand and has been observed in the South Island. This species inhabits grassland in the alpine zone and frequents open sunny areas. Adults are day flying and are on the wing in December and January. Larvae have been observed feeding on species in the plant genus Anisotome.
Taxonomy D. leucobathra was first described by Edward Meyrick in 1911 first in error as Notoreas leucobathra but corrected to Dasyuris leucobathra in the footnotes of the same publication. George Hudson discussed and illustrated this species in his 1928 book The butterflies and moths of New Zealand. The female lectotype, collected at Arthur's Pass by Hudson, is held at the Natural History Museum, London.
Description
Meyrick described this species as follows
This species can be distinguished on the basis of the cilia which are coloured with black and white bars to the base where as other species in this genus have cilia which are wholly dark for the basal half.
Distribution This species is endemic to New Zealand and can be found in the South Island.
Habitat and hosts This species inhabits grassland in the alpine zone and frequents open sunny areas. Larvae of this moth have been observed feeding on species in the genus Anisotome.
Behaviour Adults are day flying and have been observed in December and January.
Conservation status In 2025 this moth was classified under the New Zealand Threat Classification system as being "At Risk, Declining" as a result of being impacted by climate change, having poor data for both population size and trend of decline. It is also threatened as a result of weed invasion.
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