Species Cosmopterix nitens - Hodges#1469

1469

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.

3.8 - 4.5 mm FW length (1)

"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)

"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)

Adults fly March/April through October(2). Probably multivoltine in the south and univoltine in the north. (1)

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)

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)

Wikipedia - detailed description & image of Cosmopterix nitens

Interagency Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Database

The Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (3)

Moth Photographers Group (MPG) (4)