Agrionympha karoo the Karoo. Agrionympha karoo Agrionympha karoo is a species of moth belonging to the Micropterigidae family. It was described by George W. Gibbs and Niels P. Kristensen in 2011. It is found in South Africa, where it is known only from the "Eastern Cape". It lives amongst "Adiantum" species and other ferns on rocky banks of streams where seepage maintains very limited growth of thallose liverworts and mosses in an otherwise hot and arid environment. The length of the forewings is about 2.5 mm for males 2.6 mm for females. The species is named after the semi-arid region in which
Karoo plain with Mississippi-like rivers depositing mud from an immense range of mountains to the south. Ancient reptiles and amphibians prospered in the wet forests, and their remains have made the Karoo famous amongst palaeontologists. The first of these Karoo fossils was discovered in 1838 by Scots-born Andrew Geddes Bain at a road cutting near Fort Beaufort. He sent his specimens to the British Museum, where fellow Scotsman Robert Broom recognised the Karoo fossils' mammal-like characteristics in 1897. After the Beaufort period, Southern Africa (still part of Gondwana) became an arid sand desert with only ephemeral rivers and pans. These sands