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Species Monopis marginistrigella - Hodges#0417

moth - Monopis marginistrigella Clothes Moth - Monopis marginistrigella Monopis marginistrigella Monopis marginistrigella? - Monopis marginistrigella Monopis marginistrigella Pennsylvania Moth - Monopis marginistrigella Monopis marginistrigella moth - Monopis marginistrigella
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 Tineoidea (Tubeworm, Bagworm, and Clothes Moths)
Family Tineidae (Clothes Moths)
Subfamily Tineinae
Genus Monopis
Species marginistrigella (Monopis marginistrigella - Hodges#0417)
Hodges Number
0417
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Monopis irrorella (Chambers, 1873)
Tinea marginistrigella, Monopis myloclasta
Size
9 mm long. Wingspan 11-12 mm, based on photos by Jim Vargo at MPG
Identification
Adult: forewing dark gray to blackish, speckled with white or pale yellow, especially in diffuse patches mid-way along costa and along inner margin near anal angle; top of head yellow; top of thorax completely dark; hindwing uniformly brown or gray with wide fringe

Head: Yellowish-white. Palpi yellowish white, long, folded; underside brown, scaly.
Antenna: Dark brown, paler on underside. Segment 1 dark brown.
Thorax: Dark brown, some yellowish on sides.
Wings: Dark brown; some white scaling or flecks at base. White lines jutting inward along costal edge. Heavy white patch on inner edge near wing tip. Typical semi-hyaline circle at mid wing more brownish than white, with heavier white scaling below. Fringe at costal wing tip alternating brown and white. Fringe at inner margin wing tip long (anal angle), mostly white with a brown streak through middle of fringe. Hindwings gray-white, tips darker. Fringe grayish.
Legs: Alternate white and brown spotted.
Abdomen: Top brown mixed with gray. Underside silvery yellowish-white.

Similar Species: Monopis laevigella has uniform white flecking throughout wings. Semi-transparent spot at wing center is more whitish. Monopis weaverella has evenly colored yellowish fringe along inner margin at wing tip.
Range
Eastern half of U.S. Ontario & New Brunswick
Season
May to September.
Food
Debris, fungus, rotting vegetation.
Remarks
Types:
Syntype as Tinea marginistrigella by Chambers, 1873 #14950. Locality: Kentucky. In Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. Specimen in very poor condition, glued to a point with only the head, prothorax, and right forewing. No other syntypes known.

Syntype as Monopis irrorella by Dietz, 1905. #2872. Locality: Pennsylvania. In Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass.
Syntypes also in Los Angeles County Museum (1 male and 1 female) and 2 males in United States National Museum.
See Also
Monopis dorsistrigella forewing usually has a white strip along inner margin from base to anal angle, and a large white patch on top of thorax
Monopis spilotella forewing has white patches in the same locations as M. marginistrigella but the patches are more sharply-defined (less diffuse), and there is less white speckling on the basal half of the wing
Monopis weaverella forewing has a smaller and more circular whitish patch slightly below the costa mid-way along the wing
Internet References
Moth Photographers Group – images of live and pinned adults
BOLD Systems - images of pinned DNA supported specimens

The Canadian Entomologist, 1873, Vol. 5, pg. 88 by Chambers.
Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 1905, Vol. 31, pg. 31, 32 & 34: American Lepidoptera by William G. Dietz.
Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, 1923, Memoir #68: Lepidoptera of New York and Neighboring States by William T. M. Forbes.
Exotic Microlepidoptera, 1923, Vol. 3 by Meyrick, pg. 321.