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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies (Hemiptera) » Plant-parasitic Hemipterans (Sternorrhyncha) » Aleyrodoidea » Whiteflies (Aleyrodidae)
Photo#293815
Tiny White Moth
Copyright © 2009 Elliotte Rusty Harold

Tiny White Moth
Irvine, Orange County, California, USA
June 25, 2009
Size: 1.75mm body
How small does a moth have to be before we call it a micromoth?

These little white moths have been teasing me for months. They are everywhere around my apartment complex's lawns almost year round but they are almost impossible to photograph until this morning when one landed on my screen door and stuck around for a while.

I even have a good size on this one since it landed on my screen door, and I could measure that with a ruler. The space between the wires on my screen door appears to be 1/16 inches (1.5875mm but I'm betting the manufacturer worked in inches) so the body comes in about 1.75mm and from nose to wingtip about 2.4mm.
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Contributed by Elliotte Rusty Harold on 25 June, 2009 - 10:01am
Last updated 5 July, 2009 - 8:34am

It's Not Size Alone (or even at all)
Some of the micros (less derived clades/groups) are larger than some of the macros (more derived). In this sense the macros may be thought of as more recently evolved, although they go back to the early Cretaceous. Powell and Opler discuss evolutionary aspects of lepidoptera in their new book Moths of Western North America.
… Bob Patterson, 25 June, 2009 - 3:09pm login or register to post comments

Hmm
Im not an expert, but I think this might be some type of whitefly (Aleyrodidae). Very nice image.
… Chris Mallory, 25 June, 2009 - 10:24am login or register to post comments

 
Damn. I'm off by an entire or
Damn. I'm off by an entire order! Sure does look like a moth though. In fact, it looks more like a moth than some actual moths I've seen. :-)

I'll have to keep an eye open for the nymphs and the pupae.
… Elliotte Rusty Harold, 25 June, 2009 - 2:49pm login or register to post comments

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