Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
 

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Calendar

Upcoming Events

National Moth Week was July 19-27, and the Summer 2025 gathering in Louisiana, July 19-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Family Cosmopterigidae - Cosmet Moths

Representative Images

Cosmopterix Moth - Cosmopterix 1609 - - Stilbosis tesquella Unk moth - Perimede Walshia Gelechioidea - Perimede ricina Currituck County leaf miner on Spartina cynosuroides D3103 2021 3 - Cosmopterix Currituck County leaf miner on Schoenoplectus americanus D3101 adult maybe 2021 2 - Cosmopterix scirpicola Florida Moth - Triclonella pergandeella
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)

Other Common Names

Cosmopterigid Moths

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

BugGuide currently follows the moth classification and nomenclature used at Moth Photographers Group.

Explanation of Names

From the type genus Cosmopterix. Generic epithet Cosmopterix is Greek meaning "ornamental wings." (1)

Numbers

About 181 species in 26 genera in 3 subfamilies in North America. At least 1,628 species in 106 genera worldwide.

Size

Wingspan 4-26 mm

Identification

Small to minute moths. Labial palps long, curving upward, often sickle-shaped. Forewing and hindwing lancelike. Forewing shape varies from narrow to extremely narrow; hindwing usually extremely narrow. Wings often brightly marked.

Range

much of North America and the world

Season

adult flight season ranges from March to November (varies according to species)

Food

diverse feeding habits: includes bark and leaf miners, seed borers, gall makers, seed & flower bud feeders, and scavengers on dead plant material; one genus is parasitic on armored scale insects

Print References

Covell, 1984 (2)
Busck, 1906 (3)
Hodges, 1962 (4)
Hodges, 1969 (downloadable) (5)
Hodges, 1978 (6)
Koster, 2010 (7)(downloadable here)

Internet References

technical description plus pinned adult image of undeterminied cosmopterigid and other info (Gerald Fauske, Moths of North Dakota)
common name reference [Cosmet Moths] (Tree of Life, tolweb.org)

Works Cited

1.An accentuated list of the British Lepidoptera, with hints on the derivation of the names.
Anonymous. 1858. The Entomological Societies of Oxford and Cambridge.
2.Peterson Field Guides: Eastern Moths
Charles V. Covell. 1984. Houghton Mifflin Company.
3. A review of the American moths of the genus Cosmopteryx Hübner
Busck, A. 1906. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 30: 707-713.
4.A revision of the Cosmopterigidae of America north of Mexico, with a definition of the Momphidae and Walshiidae
Hodges, R. W. 1962. Entomologica Americana 42 (N. S.): 1-166.
5.Nearctic Walshiidae notes and new taxa (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea)
Hodges, R. W. 1969. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 18: 1-30.
6.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.
7.The genera Cosmopterix Hübner and Pebobs Hodges in the New World
Koster, J.C. . 2010. Zoologische Mededelingen 84: 251-575.
Contributed by Beatriz Moisset on 22 June, 2005 - 8:07am
Additional contributions by john and jane balaban, Robin McLeod, Chuck Entz, Edward Ruden, Randy Hardy, Kyhl Austin
Last updated 17 December, 2016 - 9:41pm

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