''Monopis laevigella'', the skin moth, is a species of tineoid moth. It belongs to the fungus moth family (Tineidae), and therein to the nominate subfamily Tineinae. It is (under its

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

''Tinea rusticella'') the type species of the genus '' Monopis'' and its junior objective synonym ''Hyalospila''. As with the

common clothes moth Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

(''Tineola bisselliella''), earlier authors frequently misapplied the name ''

Tinea vestianella ''Coleophora vestianella'' is a moth of the family Coleophoridae. It is found from Europe to Asia Minor, Iran, Afghanistan, China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The wingspan is . Adults are on wing from June to August. The larvae fee ...

'' to the present species. It is not uncommon all across western

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

as well as in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. It has not been recorded in Slovenia yet, but given that it occurs in all neighboring countries, it probably has simply been overlooked. Its absence from some Mediterranean islands may be genuine however.

Description and ecology

The adults of this small moth have a wingspan of 13–20 mm. On the wing around May to September (depending on the location), they are

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

and come out at dusk. They have dark brown forewings with a white fringe and the translucent center spot characteristic for the genus '' Monopis'', but lack the white markings adjacent to it found in many congeners. The hindwings are lighter brown-grey; they are surrounded by a long-haired fringe, as usual for fungus moths and relatives. The body is dark brown, and the head bears a tuft of reddish-ochre hair. Two generations per year may occur as far north as southern England. Otherwise, the

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

larvae are found in the colder months only. They generally feed on animal

detritus In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts commun ...

. They have been recorded from dried-out animal carcasses, in the debris of

bird nest A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American robin or Eurasian bl ...

s and on

owl pellet A pellet, in ornithology, is the mass of undigested parts of a bird's food that some bird species occasionally regurgitate. The contents of a bird's pellet depend on its diet, but can include the exoskeletons of insects, indigestible plant ma ...

s. They have also been found to eat

feather Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier ...

s, furs,

hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...

s, carpets, rags and rotted fabrics.

Synonyms

Invalid

scientific name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

s (

s and others) of the skin moth are: * ''Blabophanes semispilotella'' Strand, 1900 * ''Monopis rusticella'' (Hübner, 1796) * ''Monopis saturella'' (Haworth, 1828) * ''Recurvaria rustica'' Haworth, 1828 (unjustified

emendation An emendation is an alteration to a term, for a specific technical reason: * Emendation (textual), altering a word to make sense, e.g. when incomplete or assumed to have been copied incorrectly * Emendation (zoology), altering the spelling of the ...

) * ''Tinea laevigella'' Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775 * ''Tinea rusticella'' Hübner, 1796 * ''Tinea saturella'' Haworth, 1828 * ''

'' (''sensu auct., non'' Linnaeus, 1758: preoccupied) ''Blabophanes semispilotella'' has been believed to refer to the same animal as '' M. weaverella'', but the latter seems to be a distinct species, while the former is not even a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of ''M. laevigella'' but merely a chance

form Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data ...

.Robinson

010 010 may refer to: * 10 (number) * 8 (number) in octal numeral notation * Motorola 68010, a microprocessor released by Motorola in 1982 * 010, the telephone area code of Beijing * 010, the Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the R ...

/ref>

Footnotes

References

* (2008): Australian Faunal Directory &ndash
''Monopis''
Version of 2008-OCT-09. Retrieved 2010-MAY-09. * (2009)
''Monopis laevigella''
Version 2.1, 2009-DEC-22. Retrieved 2010-MAY-09. * (1942): Eigenartige Geschmacksrichtungen bei Kleinschmetterlingsraupen Strange tastes among micromoth caterpillars" ''Zeitschrift des Wiener Entomologen-Vereins'' 27: 105-109

n German N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

br>PDF fulltext
*

UKMoths &ndash
''Monopis laevigella''
Retrieved 2010-MAY-09. * (2004)
Butterflies and Moths of the World, Generic Names and their Type-species
&ndash
''Monopis''
Version of 2004-NOV-05. Retrieved 2010-MAY-09. *

br>Global Taxonomic Database of Tineidae (Lepidoptera)
&ndash
''Monopis laevigella''
Retrieved 2010-MAY-09.

External links

Lepiforum de

Images
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3088705 Tineinae Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Moths of Iceland