''Batrachedrodes bedelliella'' 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

Momphidae The Momphidae, or mompha moths, is a family of moths with some 115 described species. It was described by Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer in 1857. These moths tend to be rather small with a wingspan of up to 21 mm. The wings are he ...

. It was first described by Lord Walsingham in 1907. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the Hawaiian islands. As of 1978, the distribution is not entirely clear. It is thought to be native to

Oahu Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O� ...

, Molokai, Maui and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

, however only specimens from Maui and Molokai are certainly collected on those islands. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

was collected at Haleakala in Maui at elevation. The larvae live among the sporangia of ''

Asplenium nidus :''See bird's-nest fern for other plants with this common name.'' ''Asplenium nidus'' is an epiphytic species of fern in the family Aspleniaceae, native to tropical southeastern Asia, eastern Australia, Hawaii (''ʻēkaha'' in Hawaiian), Poly ...

'' and '' Elaphoglossum reticulatum'', hidden below a sheet of webbing. Zimmerman found it most resembling '' Batrachedrodes syrraphella'' in his key to the genus ''

Batrachedrodes ''Batrachedrodes'' is a genus of moths of the Momphidae family. All species of this genus are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. All six species were collected by Robert Cyril Layton Perkins and then described by Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsin ...

'', differing primarily due to its darker coloured wings. Both these species differ from ''B. ephelus'' by their larger, H-shaped gnathos (a

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage * Dorsal c ...

flap of the tegumen positioned within the genital ring), with two longer lobes bridged by a distinct bar between them.

References

Momphidae Endemic moths of Hawaii Moths described in 1907 {{Momphidae-stub