''Bedellia oplismeniella'' 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

Bedelliidae Bedelliidae is a small family of small, narrow-winged 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 ...

. It was first described by Otto Swezey in 1912. It is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, specifically to

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

and possibly

Molokai Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length an ...

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 stat ...

. The larvae feed on ''

Oplismenus compositus ''Oplismenus compositus'', the running mountaingrass, is a species of perennial plant from the family Poaceae that can be found throughout Asia (Pakistan China), Africa, Australia, South America, Mexico and Hawaii. Description The plant is l ...

'' and ''

Panicum torridum ''Panicum'' (panicgrass) is a large genus of about 450 species of Poaceae, grasses native throughout the tropical regions of the world, with a few species extending into the northern temperate zone. They are often large, Annual plant, annual or P ...

''. They

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

the leaves of their host plant. The mine is usually positioned lengthwise in the leaf, widening as the larvae grows in size. Full-grown larvae are about 5 mm long and pale green with a mid-dorsal purplish-red stripe. When full grown, the larva emerges from the leaf, spins a few fibers beside the mid-rib of the leaf, at the base, or in some other partially secluded place, then pupates among these fibers without making a cocoon. The pupa is about 4 mm long and pale yellowish. The pupal period lasts about 8 days.

External links

* Bedelliidae Endemic moths of Hawaii {{Yponomeutoidea-stub