''Compsoctena furciformis'' 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 ...

in the family

Eriocottidae Eriocottidae or Old World spiny-winged moths is a family of insects in the order Lepidoptera whose position relative to other members of the superfamily Tineoidea is currently unknown. There are two subfamilies, Compsocteninae and Eriocottinae. ...

. It was described by

Edward Meyrick Edward Meyrick (25 November 1854, in Ramsbury – 31 March 1938, at Thornhanger, Marlborough) was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern micr ...

in 1921. It is found in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 21–22 mm. The forewings are whitish fuscous, reticulated with brown sprinkled with blackish. The markings are brown irregularly sprinkled or irrorated with black, especially on the veins. There is a moderate ill-defined basal fascia and a moderate fascia from two-fifths of the costa to the middle of the dorsum, the anterior edge almost straight and the posterior edge obtusely angulated below the middle. There is a moderate fascia from two-thirds of the costa to the tornus, narrowed near the lower extremity, with a rather excurved narrower branch running from its middle to the costa before the apex. The hindwings are rather dark grey.

References

Moths described in 1921 Compsoctena Lepidoptera of South Africa Insects of Zimbabwe {{Eriocottidae-stub