Beautiful Cosmopterix Moth
Cosmopterix pulchrimella
This record describes Cosmopterix pulchrimella (species). Recorded family: Cosmopterigidae. Recorded order: Lepidoptera.
Identification and Appearance
Cosmopterix pulchrimella, the beautiful cosmopterix moth, is a moth of the family Cosmopterigidae. It is known from the United States (from Massachusetts and southern Wyoming south to southern Florida and southern Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico) and Canada. It is also present in the Palaearctic ecozone, where it is known from the Mediterranean region, from Portugal to the western Transcaucasus, north to Switzerland and Hungary. It has also been recorded from the Azores, the Canary Islands and...
Wikipedia reference for Cosmopterix pulchrimella: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopterix pulchrimella.
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
- Superfamily
- Gelechioidea
- Family
- Cosmopterigidae (Cosmet Moths)
- Subfamily
- Cosmopteriginae
- Genus
- Cosmopterix
Imported taxonomy record. Source availability varies; see the source references and editorial policy below.
About Butterflies and Moths: the wider group
Order-level background for Lepidoptera, the group containing Cosmopterix pulchrimella. Species-specific details appear above.
Group overview
Lepidoptera includes approximately 180,000 described species of butterflies and moths. Moths outnumber butterflies roughly 10:1. The monarch butterfly's eastern population has declined by more than 80% since the mid-1990s, and the western population by over 95% since the 1980s. The IUCN lists the migratory monarch as Vulnerable.
Ecological role of the group
Butterflies and moths are essential indicators of ecosystem health. As caterpillars, they are a primary food source for birds - a single nest of blue tit chicks requires ~10,000 caterpillars. Adult moths pollinate many night-blooming plants.
Economic and practical significance of the group
Lepidoptera are critical pollinators. In Europe, grassland butterfly species have declined by almost 50% since the early 1990s. In the UK, three-quarters of butterflies are in decline. In the U.S., five butterfly species have gone extinct since 1950, with 29 listed as endangered.
Recorded sources for this group: IUCN Red List, Xerces Society, USFWS, PNAS, WWF. Imported estimates may describe particular regions or reporting periods.
