Black and White Striped Unidentified insect
Location: Montana
December 31, 2010 12:39 am
Hello. I have a random insect that appeared in my home a couple days ago. I live in Bozeman, MT and I had a Fraser fir in my house and I also have a couple herbs growing in my kitchen (basil, oregano, thyme). My camera wouldn’t focus any closer but zoomed in the picture is fairly good. Thank you very much.
Signature: Jenny
Hi Jenny,
This is a moth, and since it is small, it is somewhat unscientifically categorized as a Microlepidoptera. We tried scanning the plates on the Moth Photographers Group without any success. It looks similar to a Clothes Moth in the genus Eudarcia that is pictured on BugGuide, be we are confident that is not the correct classification for your specimen. We do believe your moth is neither a Clothes Moth nor a Pantry Moth, and it may have been transported on the Christmas tree. You did not indicate if this was an isolated specimen or part of an infestation. Perhaps one of our readers will have better luck with a species identification.
Try Scythris trivinctella or Filatima albilorella. One of them seem to be a pretty close match.