Hyposmocoma tantala is a species of moth of the family Cosmopterigidae. It is known only from Mount Tantalus on Oahu.

Hyposmocoma tantala
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Cosmopterigidae
Genus: Hyposmocoma
Species:
H. tantala
Binomial name
Hyposmocoma tantala
Larval case

The length of the forewings is 5.5 millimetres (0.22 in) for males and 6.2 millimetres (0.24 in) for females.[1]

The larval case is dark brown, smooth, 9 millimetres (0.35 in) in length and 2 millimetres (0.079 in) wide. Adults were reared from case-making larvae collected on bark of a damp dead tree covered partially with lichen.

Etymology edit

The species is named tantala after Mount Tantalus, from where the type specimen was collected.

References edit

  1. ^ Akito Y. Kawahara; Daniel Rubinoff (2012). "Three new species of Fancy Case caterpillars from threatened forests of Hawaii (Lepidoptera, Cosmopterigidae, Hyposmocoma)". ZooKeys (170): 1–20. doi:10.3897/zookeys.170.1428. PMC 3288677. PMID 22408378.  This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 3.0 license.