Plume Moth

Description:

Pterophoridae; Pterophorinae; Pterophorus niveus (Snellen, 1903) Wikipedia has the following to say about Pterophoridae: "The forewings of plume moths usually consist of two curved spars with more or less bedraggled bristles trailing behind. This resembles the closely related Alucitidae (many-plumed moths) at first glance, but the latter have a greater number of symmetrical plumes. The hindwings are similarly constructed, but have three spars. A few genera have normal lepidopteran wings. The usual resting posture is with the wings extended laterally and narrowly rolled up. Often they resemble a piece of dried grass, and may pass unnoticed by potential predators even when resting in exposed situations in daylight. Some species have larvae which are stem- or root-borers while others are leaf-browsers."

Habitat:

This moth was spotted in grasses at the edge of our vegetable plot. I don't know what the host plants of this species are, but since the vegetable plot usually has a variety of plants, I am pretty sure the moth was there for the vegetables and not the grasses it was resting on.

Notes:

For those who are interested in the Etymology of scientific names, 'niveus' is Latin for snowy-white, but 'Pterophorus' is a little more tricky. It comes from Latinised Greek; the 'Ptero' means 'wing' and the 'phorus' means 'light'. So I guess that the name of this species means "Light-Winged Snowy-White". It kind of works!