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Species Cosmopterix nitens - Hodges#1469

Cosmopterix nitens C. nitens?  - Cosmopterix nitens C. nitens?  - Cosmopterix nitens Cosmopterix nitens - Hodges#1469 - Cosmopterix nitens Cosmopterix nitens - Hodges#1469 - Cosmopterix nitens Unknown Micro - Cosmopterix nitens Cosmopterix nitens - Hodges#1469 - Cosmopterix nitens Cosmopterix nitens - Hodges#1469 - Cosmopterix nitens
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Gelechioidea (Twirler Moths and kin)
Family Cosmopterigidae (Cosmet Moths)
Subfamily Cosmopteriginae
Genus Cosmopterix
Species nitens (Cosmopterix nitens - Hodges#1469)
Hodges Number
1469
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Cosmopterix nitens Walsingham, 1889 PL. 2, FIG. 20. TEXT FIGS. 5 a; 19 a (McD. 7697).
Cosmopteryx [sic] nitens Walsingham, 1889, Insect Life, 1: 289.
Size
3.8 - 4.5 mm FW length (1)
Identification
"Head: frons shining ochreous-white, vertex, neck tufts and collar shining pale bronze brown with greenish gloss; labial palpus, first segment very short, white, second segment three-quarters of the length of third, grey with white longitudinal lines laterally and ventrally, third segment white, lined dark greyish brown laterally."(1)

Larva: black head, yellowish-orange to brownish body, red dorsal and single lateral broken lines. (1)
Range
"It is known from the United States, where it is found from coastal South Carolina to south-western Texas."(1)(2)
Type locality: Southwest Texas [BMNH]. (2)
Season
Adults fly March/April through October(2). Probably multivoltine in the south and univoltine in the north. (1)
Food
The larvae feed on Phragmites australis. They mine the leaves of their host plant. The mine has the form of a gallery ranging in length from three to seven cm. The frass is piled at basal end of the mine and expelled from an opening at that end. The larva moves along the mine when disturbed. It hibernates in its cocoon inside the mine. (1)
See Also
Cosmopterix sinelinea is similar, but C. nitens can be separated from this species by the fused basal lines on the forewing. The forewing of C. sinelinea lacks the basal lines. (2)
Works Cited
1.The genera Cosmopterix Hübner and Pebobs Hodges in the New World
Koster, J.C. . 2010. Zoologische Mededelingen 84: 251-575.
2.The Moths of North America North of Mexico. Fascicle 6.1, Gelechioidea, Antequerinae, Cosmopteriginae, Chrysopeleiinae.
Hodges, R. W. 1978. London: E. W. Classey Ltd. and The Wedge Entomological Research Foundation, 166 pp.
3.BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data Systems
4.North American Moth Photographers Group