Infurcitinea argentimaculella

Silver-barred clothes moth
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Tineidae
Genus:	Infurcitinea
Species:	I. argentimaculella
Binomial name
Infurcitinea argentimaculella (Stainton, 1849)
Synonyms
Tinea argentimaculella Stainton, 1849 Tinea niveistrigella Heinemann, 1854 Tinea sequella Haworth, 1828 Tinea vinculimarginella Bruand, [1854]

Infurcitinea argentimaculella, the silver-barred clothes moth, is a moth of the family Tineidae. It was described by Stainton in 1849. It is found in most of Europe, except Ireland, Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania and the Balkan Peninsula.

Description

The wingspan is 7–8 mm. A fairly robust dark moth with contrasting markings. The antennae are filamentous and about two-thirds as long as the forewings. The head is covered with hair-like scales that are grey-yellow in the middle, darker behind and on the sides. The thorax and the forewings are black-brown, often with a slightly bronze-like sheen. The forewing has silvery-white spots that form three interrupted transverse bands, at the far end of the wing there are three small, round spots. The hind wing is dark grey. The larva is light brown with a black head.

Biology

Adults are on wing from July to early August.

The larvae feed on lichens, including Lepraria species, growing on shady rocks, walls or tree trunks. They construct a lichen covered silken tube. Pupation takes place within the tube.

References

Content in this edit is translated from the existing Norwegian Wikipedia article at no:Infurcitinea argentimaculella; see its history for attribution.