Cosmopterix clandestinella is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Cosmopterigidae

Cosmopterigidae

Cosmopterigidae is a family of insects in the Lepidoptera order. These are small moths with narrow wings whose tiny larvae feed internally on the leaves, seeds, stems, etc of their host plants. There are about 1,500 described species...

 family. It is known from United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 (from Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 and southern Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 south to Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 and North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

. It has also been recorded from Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

).

Adult

Male, female. Forewing length 3.2-3.7mm. Head: frons shining ochreous-white with greenish and purplish reflections, vertex and neck tufts shining pale bronze brown with greenish and reddish reflections, laterally lined white, collar shining pale bronze brown with greenish and reddish reflections; labial palpus first segment very short, white, second segment three-quarters of the length of third, dorsally brown, ventrally white, third segment dorsally white, ventrally brown, extreme apex brown; scape dorsally bronze brown with a white anterior line, ventrally white, antenna shining brown with an interrupted white line from base to beyond one-half with a short uninterrupted section distally, followed towards apex by six brown segments, six white, eight brown, six white and one brownish segment at apex. Thorax and tegulae shining pale bronze brown with greenish and purplish gloss. Legs: shining dark greyish brown, tibia of midleg ochreous-grey, foreleg with a white line on tibia and tarsal segments, tibia of midleg with silver metallic oblique basal and medial streaks and a white apical ring, tarsal segments one, two and four with white apical rings, segment five missing, hindlegs missing, spurs dark greyish brown, ventrally white. Forewing shining dark brown with reddish gloss, at one-fifth three short silver metallic streaks of equal length with bluish reflection, a subcostal and a medial just above fold, and a slightly wider subdorsal just below fold, beyond one-half a shining dark yellow transverse fascia, narrowing towards dorsum, bordered on the inner edge by a slightly inwardly oblique tubercular silver metallic fascia with greenish and purplish reflections, bordered at the outer edge by similarly coloured costal and dorsal spots, the dorsal spot three times the size of the costal and more towards base, the fascia outwardly and the costal and dorsal spot broadly edged dark brown inwardly, the costal spot outwardly edged by a narrow white costal streak, apical line as a silver metallic spot with bluish reflection in the middle of the apical area and a broad white streak in the cilia at apex, cilia dark brown, paler on dorsum towards base. Hindwing shining dark greyish brown, cilia greyish brown. Underside: forewing shining brown with the white costal and apical streak distinctly visible, hindwing shining greyish brown. Abdomen dorsally shining brown with some greenish gloss, laterally and ventrally shining dark greyish brown with greenish reflection, segments broadly banded shining white posteriorly, anal tuft shining greyish-brown.

Larva

Body light green with short light hairs, at maturity with three brilliant wine-red longitudinal stripes, head and prothoracic plate yellow.

Biology

The larvae feed on Dichanthelium clandestinum. They mine

Leaf miner

Leaf miner is a term used to describe the larvae of many different species of insect which live in and eat the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths , sawflies and flies , though some beetles and wasps also exhibit this behavior.Like Woodboring beetles, leaf...

 the leaves of their host plant. The mine is an irregular longitudinal blotch mine with the frass

Frass

Frass is the fine powdery material phytophagous insects pass as waste after digesting plant parts. It causes plants to excrete chitinase due to high chitin levels, it is a natural bloom stimulant, and has high nutrient levels. Frass is known to have abundant amoeba, beneficial bacteria, and fungi...

 ejected at one end. At maturity the larva cuts a circular piece out of the epidermis of its mine, which it bends lengthwise and uses for a cocoon exactly like the genus Cycloplasis. There are two generations, the adults have emerged from late May to early June and again in late July and August. The specimens from Michigan are obviously from the second generation, the mines were collected in August and the adults emerged in May.