Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Clemens 1859
Amydria coloradella, Myrmecozela effrentella, misspellings as effrenatella, efrentella.
Size
9 to 12 mm long. Wingspan 15 to 25 mm.
Identification
Head: Female yellowish-brown, male somewhat darker, both have entire head covered with flatted hairs, similar to Clothes Moths Tineidae. Small eyes. Nose cone projecting; middle segment covered with long hair (bearded), brown on outside, lighter in the middle. Last segment almost bare, yellow, projecting up to top of head. Antenna: Yellowish-brown, thick, many segments reaching to mid-wing.
Thorax: Dark brown, surrounded with yellowish-brown. No mane or spiked hair like other Tubeworms.
Wings: Long and narrow with rounded tips. Yellowish-brown mottled with dark brown. Inner marginal area more yellowish-brown. Outside (costal) margin dark at base, the rest checkered dark brown and yellowish, becoming progressively smaller around wing tip. Female has more yellowish, especially near wing tips. Fringe yellowish, much longer at anal angle. Hind wings pale grayish-yellow, including fringe.
Genitalia:
♀
Food
Dried plant material, detritus.
unknown, probably a subsoil root feeder or detritivore (
Moths of North Dakota)
Life Cycle
Unknown. One report found it to be a common inhabitant of the leafy nests of the mountain beaver. Adults attracted to lights.
Remarks
Types:
Holotype as Amydria effrentella by Clemens, 1859. Type Locality: Unknown. In the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Clemens #9, abdomen missing.
Print References
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1859, Vol. 11 by Clemens, pg. 260 as Amydria effrentella.
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1860, Vol. 12 by Stainton, pg. 433 as Amydria effrenatella misspelling.
Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, 1863-64, Vol. 2 by Stainton, pg. 130.
The Tineina of North America, 1872 by Clemens; Introduction by Stainton, pg. vii, pp. 37 to 39 and pp. 55 to 56.
Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 1902-03, Vol. 5: Notes on Clemens’ Types of Tineina by Busck, pg. 186.
The Canadian Entomologist, 1906, Vol. 38: On Dr. Wm Dietz’s Revision of the Tineidae by Busck, pp. 345 to 347.
Exotic Microleps, 1916-23, Vol. 2 by Meyrick, pg. 87 genus name changes to Myrmecozela.
Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, 1923, Memoir #68 by Forbes, pg. 139
Entomologica-Americana, 1943, Vol. 23 #2: Selection of colored lights by night flying insects by Milne, pg. 76 as Myrmecozela effrenatella.
Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 1969, Vol. 62 #2 by Johnson & Martin – larvae found in beaver nests.
Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 1986, Vol. 88 #1: Neotropical Tineidae, II: Biological notes and descriptions of two new moths phoretic on spiny pocket mice in Costa Rica by Davis, Clayton, Janzen and Brooke, pp. 98 to 99.
Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 1990, Vol. 92 #4 by Davis, pg. 701.
Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification, 2011, #17: Lepidoptera by Dombroskie, pp. 15 to 16.
