''Adela flammeusella'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Adelidae The Adelidae or fairy longhorn moths are a family of monotrysian moths in the lepidopteran infraorder Heteroneura. The family was first described by Charles Théophile Bruand d'Uzelle in 1851. Most species have at least partially metallic patter ...

or fairy longhorn moths. It was described by

Vactor Tousey Chambers Vactor Tousey Chambers (commonly V.T. Chambers) (6 August 1830, Burlington, Kentucky – 7 August 1883, in Covington, Kentucky) was an American entomologist who specialized in Microlepidoptera. He along with James Brackenridge Clemens, was a pione ...

in 1876. It is found in the United States from southern

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

south to the foothills and interior valleys of most of cismontane

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The length of the forewings is 5–6 mm. Adults are dark coppery bronze, usually with three to five cream-colored spots in males. Both sexes have metallic purple hindwings. Adults are on wing from late March to early June. The larvae probably feed on various species of ''

Orthocarpus ''Orthocarpus'', or owl's-clover, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Orobanchaceae (broomrapes). They are native to North America. A number of species formerly included in ''Orthocarpus'' have been transferred to the genus ''Castilleja ...

'' and/or ''

Castilleja ''Castilleja'', commonly known as paintbrush, Indian paintbrush, or prairie-fire, is a genus of about 200 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants native to the west of the Americas from Alaska south to the Andes, northern Asia, and one ...

''.

References

Adelidae Moths described in 1876 {{Adelidae-stub