Hyposmocoma pupumoehewa
Encyclopedia
Hyposmocoma pupumoehewa is a species of moth
of the Cosmopterigidae
family. It is endemic to Maui
.
The wingspan
is 11–12.2 mm for males and 11.4-13.8 mm for females.
The larvae have been observed feeding on snails of the Tornatellides
genus. They use silk to bind snails to nearby leaves and force their way into the snail's shell to feed. The larvae live in a larval case which has the form of an elongated structure with one entrance at each end. It is decorated with bits of sand and pebbles heavily woven with silk filaments. In the wild, lichen and empty snail shells are also used.
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 Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
.
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 11–12.2 mm for males and 11.4-13.8 mm for females.
The larvae have been observed feeding on snails of the Tornatellides
Tornatellides
Tornatellides is a genus of minute, air-breathing land snails, terrestrial gastropod mollusks, or micromolluscs in the family Achatinellidae.-Predators:These very small snails are preyed upon by caterpillars of the moth Hyposmocoma molluscivora....
genus. They use silk to bind snails to nearby leaves and force their way into the snail's shell to feed. The larvae live in a larval case which has the form of an elongated structure with one entrance at each end. It is decorated with bits of sand and pebbles heavily woven with silk filaments. In the wild, lichen and empty snail shells are also used.