''Pectinivalva xenadelpha'' 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 in

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

, east

Kalimantan Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo. In 2019, ...

. 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 mm for females. The thorax, tegulae and forewings are uniform shining dark grey with weak blue reflections. The hindwings are pale grey.Phylogeny and host-plant relationships of the Australian Myrtaceae leafmining moth genus Pectinivalva (Lepidoptera, Nepticulidae), with new subgenera and species
/ref> The larvae feed on '' Syzygium acuminatissimum''. 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 has the form of a long, very narrow contorted gallery. The first half is very narrow, running from the midrib to the leaf margin, or sometimes along the midrib. This part is filled with blackish

frass Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter. Definition and etymology ''Frass'' is an informal term and accordingly it is variously used and variously defined. It is derived from the ...

. The second half is much wider, much contorted and often zigzagging. Here, the frass is compact, black and leaves narrow clear margins. The exit-hole is located on the underside and has the form of a semicircular hole. Pupation takes place in an ochreous cocoon.

Etymology

The species is derived from the Greek ''xenos'' (meaning stranger, foreigner) and ''adelpha'' (meaning sister) and refers to the close relationship to ''

Pectinivalva acmenae ''Pectinivalva acmenae'' is a moth of the family Nepticulidae. It is found in New South Wales. The wingspan is 4.5–5.5 mm for males and 5.2–5.6 mm for females. The thorax, tegulae and forewings are uniform shining dark grey with s ...

'', as well as the great geographical distance between this and other known ''

Pectinivalva ''Pectinivalva'' is a genus of moths of the family Nepticulidae. Species *Subgenus ''Pectinivalva'' **'' Pectinivalva caenodora'' (Meyrick, 1906) **'' Pectinivalva chalcitis'' (Meyrick, 1906) **'' Pectinivalva commoni'' Scoble, 1983 **'' Pectini ...

'' species.

References

Moths described in 2013 Nepticulidae Moths of Asia {{Nepticulidae-stub