Monopis laevigella

Description

The skin moth (Monopis laevigella) 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 Tinea rusticella) the type species of the genus Monopis and its junior objective synonym Hyalospila. As with the common clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella), earlier authors frequently misapplied the name Tinea vestianella to the present species. It is not uncommon all across western Eurasia as well as in North America. 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.