My (somewhat) closeted obsession with micro-moths grew a bit stronger recently, while I surfed the Web for interesting photos of Lepidoptera to show my ENT 502 students. Several photos of oecophorids, known as concealer moths, with their gaudy vestments and perplexing postures, emerged from the vast array of LBJs (i.e., lil’ brown jobs) to steal the show (exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C). So, this week I choose to celebrate a local beauty, Inga sparsiciliella (Clemens, 1864) (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae), also known as the black-marked Inga moth.

This lovely moth was originally described by James Brackenridge Clemens, from at least one specimen collected in Virginia. Clemens named the species sparsiciliella and classified it in the genus Anesychia. The Anesychia sparsiciliella holotype is deposited at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Busck (1908) later described the genus Inga and made Anesychia sparsiciliella the type species—that is, he transferred it from Anesychia into Inga. There are currently three junior synonyms: Inga contrariella (Walker, 1864), Inga inscitella (Walker, 1864), and Inga atropicta (Zeller, 1875). There are currently about 100 species of Inga known currently.

Fore wing is white with black markings, especially the larger black blotches near the middle of the wings. The shapes of these black wing blotches are relatively consistent, as described by Clemens (1864). Clemens also refers to the apical areas of the wing as being “slightly dusted with dispersed, black atoms, and near the hinder margin on the ends of the nervules are a few black dots.” Antennae are mostly black, except white at base. Head otherwise white, including labial palps (except for a black stripe along the middle articulation).

Nothing is known, apparently, of Inga sparsiciliella larval morphology or host plants. Brazilian species of Inga, however, have been reared from Ebenaceae and Caryocaraceae (see Diniz et al. 2007)

Inga species are distributed primarily througout the Neotropics. I. sparsiciliella itself can be collected in the southeastern U.S.A., from Texas to Florida, north to Tennessee and Virginia. Our specimens were collected in Wake County, North Carolina.

• original description of sparsiciliella in: Clemens, B. 1864. North American micro-Lepidoptera. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia 2: 415-430.
• original description of Inga in: Busck, A. 1908. A generic revision of American moths of the family Oecophoridae, with descriptions of new species. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 35: 187-207.
• Inga sparsiciliella (Clemens, 1864) species page at BugGuide.
• Inga sparsiciliella (Clemens, 1864) species page at the Moth Photographers Group.
• Inga sparsiciliella (Clemens, 1864) species page at GBIF.