''Pectinivalva primigena'' 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

Nepticulidae Nepticulidae is a family of very small moths with a worldwide distribution. They are characterised by eyecaps over the eyes (see also Opostegidae, Bucculatricidae, Lyonetiidae). These pigmy moths or midget moths, as they are commonly known, inc ...

. It is found along the south-eastern coast of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. 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 about 4.3 mm for females. Meyrick beat the single known specimen from '' Banksia sermta'' and thought this was probably the host-plant. He also stated that he found nepticulid larvae on this plant, but failed to rear them. Moore (1966) illustrated vacated mines on ''Banksia sermta'' and ''

Banksia integrifolia ''Banksia integrifolia'', commonly known as the coast banksia, is a species of tree that grows along the east coast of Australia. One of the most widely distributed ''Banksia'' species, it occurs between Victoria and Central Queensland in a b ...

'', which he believed belonged to nepticulids. However, search in a number of localities during 1995 has failed to reveal any unequivocal sign of nepticulids on ''Banksia'' or any other genus of Proteaceae. Vacated mines on ''Banksia sermta'', identical to those illustrated by Moore, have been found in two localities, but they are considered unlikely to belong to Nepticulidae as the commencement of the linear mine is uncharacteristically broad, and the egg appears to be injected into the leaf tissues, and is not visible on the surface. No ''Pectinivalva'' has yet been reared from any family of plants other than Myrtaceae. The host plant is thus unknown, but probably a

Myrtaceae Myrtaceae, the myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, pōhutukawa, bay rum tree, clove, guava, acca (feijoa), allspice, and eucalyptus are some notable members of this group. All speci ...

species. Most likely, 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.

External links

Australian Faunal DirectoryAustralian Nepticulidae (Lepidoptera): Redescription of the named species
Moths of Australia Nepticulidae Moths described in 1906 Taxa named by Edward Meyrick {{nepticulidae-stub