Hyposmocoma laysanensis is a species of 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 endemic to Laysan

Laysan

Laysan , located northwest of Honolulu at N25° 42' 14" W171° 44' 04", is one of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It comprises one land mass of , about 1 by 1.5 miles in size . It is an atoll of sorts, although the land completely surrounds a shallow central lake some above sea level that has...

. The type locality is Guano Rock.

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

is 10–10.5 mm.

The larval case is purse-shaped and is 4.1–7.0 mm in length. It is smooth and cylindrical, bulged and flat in the middle, with growth lines starting at the middle, extending laterally toward two entrances. The background color is shiny dark brown.

Adults were reared from case-making larvae. Larvae were collected on the ground away from shoreline.

External links

• New species of Hyposmocoma (Lepidoptera, Cosmopterigidae) from the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands of Laysan, Necker, and Nihoa