Trissodoris honorariella

Description

Trissodoris honorariella, the pandanus leaf perforator or pandanus hole-cutter moth, is a small cosmet moth species (family Cosmopterigidae). It belongs to subfamily Cosmopteriginae and is the type species of the genus Trissodoris. Baron Thomas Walsingham in 1907 had specimens from both ends of the species' range – New Guinea and Pitcairn Island – which he described as separate species Stagmatophora honorariella and S. quadrifasciata in the same work. But his mistake was soon recognized, and when Edward Meyrick established the genus Trissodoris in 1914, he chose the former name to be valid. The habits of this moth have enabled it to be distributed far and wide by the native peoples of the Pacific. These people use the leaves of the moth's food plant Pandanus for the making of mats, baskets, and other items which for generations have accompanied voyaging islanders, and the moth has thus been widely dispersed by man. Like many related cosmet moths, this species has a short scape which bears a comb of hairs. They can be distinguished except from closely related species by their wing venation: in the forewings, vein 1b is not forked and veins 2–4 are separate, while veins 6–8 are not; the 6th and 7th veins branch off from the stalk of the 8th, while in some related genera the 7th and 8th share a single stalk.