Case-bearing clothes moth

Appearance

"Tinea pellionella" is silvery grey to shiny light brown in color, with dark grayish hairs on the top of its head. The adult of this species has a wingspan of 9 to 16 millimeters. Its forewings are grizzled brown with one large spot and a few smaller, indistinct black spots. The hindwings are plain pale brown-grey. The forewings, but especially the hindwings are surrounded by a hairy fringe. The larva eats mainly fibrous keratin, such as hairs and feathers. It can become a pest when it feeds on carpets, furs, upholstery, and woolen fabrics. It also consumes detritus, cobwebs, bird nests, stored vegetable produce and wallpaper. It stays inside a snug case it constructs from debris such as fibers and hairs.

Naming

Being a widespread species and often affiliated with humans, "T. pellionella" was among the first moths to be scientifically described in the modern sense. At that time most moths were included in a single genus ""Phalaena"", but "Tinea" was already recognized as a distinct subgenus. Some later researchers who studied this moth erroneously believed they had discovered populations formerly unknown to science and described them as new species, but today these are all included within "T. pellionella". Obsolete scientific names for this moth thus may be encountered in the literature, and include:
⤷  "Phalaena" "pellionella" Linnaeus, 1758
⤷  "Phalaena zoolegella" Scopoli, 1763
⤷  "Tinea demiurga" Meyrick, 1920
⤷  "Tinea gerasimovi" Zagulajev, 1978
⤷  "Tinea pelliomella"

Distribution

This species has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring nearly worldwide. It is synanthropic; the adult is typically encountered during summer and early autumn, but populations that live in human dwellings may be seen at other times of the year.