Cosmopterigidae, Walshia amorphella - Walshia amorphella

Question

How was this identified? By host plant?

Looking at the plates by Hodges 1961, this seems closest in appearance to W. dispar. Hodges describes amorphella and some features do not seem to match. Hodges mentions that the maculation's of dispar are similar but the images are pretty different.

There are currently eight recognized species in Walshia. At least 5 are similar in appearance and per Hodges 1961 are separated by genitalia. I'm not sure host plants are known for any other than amorphella and miscecolorella. I checked BOLD but they seem to have erroneously dumped pretty much everything into miscecolorella. (Instead of one BIN group, there are several shown in miscecolorella.)

I don't have Moths of America North of Mexico, Fascicle 6.1 in which Hodges describes two new species in addition to those he described in 1961. It may have more info.

… Steve Nanz, 23 May, 2016 - 4:56am

Amorpha rearings

Re-reared both Amorpha stem gall moths and sent them to T. Harrison for ID confirmation.

… MJ Hatfield, 27 May, 2018 - 8:36am

is from rearing of stem galls on Leadplant, Amorpha canescens. So yes, ID based solely on host plant.

A side note: I see this stem gall on Leadplant in native prairie remnants but have yet to see it on Leadplant in a prairie planting.

… MJ Hatfield, 23 May, 2016 - 7:58am

Was this moth released...

or did you happen to save it (or send to Terry)?

… Charley Eiseman, 23 May, 2016 - 9:29pm

I have another one

from a Lead plant gall, Red Oak Prairie, emerged 2016.

I've just set it aside to send to Terry.

… MJ Hatfield, 7 January, 2017 - 10:41am

Thanks for the info. Since we don't know the host plants for the other species, I'm not sure it makes sense to bump back up to genus. I guess we can consider the ID as tentative for now.

… Steve Nanz, 23 May, 2016 - 6:05pm

Moved

Moved from Walshia.

… Charley Eiseman, 10 October, 2011 - 9:27pm