Kingdom Animalia Division Ditrysia Family Cosmopterigidae Scientific name Trissodoris honorariella Rank Species | Class Insecta Superfamily Gelechioidea Subfamily Cosmopteriginae Phylum Arthropoda Order Butterflies and moths | |
Similar Butterflies and moths, Anatrachyntis, Erechthias, Herpetogramma licarsisalis, Pyroderces | ||
The pandanus leaf perforator or pandanus hole-cutter moth (Trissodoris honorariella) 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 the 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 sixth and seventh vein branch off from the stalk of the eighth, while in some related genera the seventh and eighth share a single stalk.
Distribution and ecology
This moth is found all over the Pacific region. Its north- to southwestern limits are Japan, the Caroline Islands of Micronesia, New Guinea and eastern Australia; the reports from the Malay Archipelago (Buru in Indonesia and Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo) and particularly Sri Lanka probably represent more recent introductions or accidental records. But most of its range encompasses Polynesia and adjacent Melanesia, where it is found on the New Hebrides, Fiji, the Samoan Islands, Tahiti and perhaps other Society Islands, Pitcairn Island, Rapa Iti, and the Hawaiian Islands (where it is found on Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Maui, Lanaʻi and the Big Island). It is found mostly in the lowlands, where its foodplants grow best.
The caterpillar larvae feed on Pandanus species, including Pandanus tectorius. They are very long and slender and reach a length of about 15 mm. The larvae mine the dead leaves of their host plant. When they reach maturity, they cut through both upper and lower leaf surfaces. Then they fasten the cut-out sections of leaf together to form their large pupal cases. The cases are usually pulled into the surrounding mined-out interior of the leaf, and this results in clean-cut, ovate holes being made which pass completely through the leaves.