Twirling Cosmet Moth

Description:

Ressia sp. a member of the Family: Cosmopterigidae; Subfamily: Cosmopteriginae; Genus: Ressia Sinev, 1988. This is a small moth with narrow wings. The head is whitish-grey with red eyes. In dorsal view (with the wings closed), the wings start beige for the first one fourth near the head and the other three fourths are black with three irregular (broken) horizontal white stripes. At the wing tips there is a broader white band along the margin. The legs are white with black markings, the back legs showing much more black.

Habitat:

This Ressia sp. was spotted along the side of a narrow road in dense foliage. This point in the road was perhaps 100 feet above sea level and on a steep slope rising up to about 200 feet at the top. It is one of my favourite roads to go bug hunting as there is a great variety of insects, especially moths and butterflies at this slightly higher elevation.

Notes:

It is easy to see where this moth's common name comes from. I observed that he never seems to spend much time in any one place and continually makes short erratic flights from one leaf to another, but the interesting part is his landings. Every time he lands, he puts on a spectacular "break dance", spinning and twirling at breakneck speeds. He then settles down for literally a second or two and he's off again. This amazing performance does not, as far as I know, have any clear purpose. Does it serve to deter predators, or is it to attract a mate ? Or is he just showing off when he sees a camera.