The Christmas Island Plume Moth was described in 1900; as its name implies, t is endemic to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

“Antennae white. Palpi scarcely projecting beyond the head; white. Head pale rust-brown above, face white. Thorax yellowish white anteriorly, rust-brown posteriorly; under-side shining white, tinged with yellowish at the sides. Fore wings cleft to beyond middle; yellowish white, the costae and dorsum narrowly pale rust-brown; a few rust-brown scales crossing the wings at one-fourth are succeeded by a rust-brown patch at the base of the fissure, wider on the tornal than on the apical lobe; before the middle of the apical lobe is another transverse oblique rust-brown patch of the same colour which overflows the dorsal but not the costal cilia; on the tornal lobe there is also a broad straight transverse rust-brown patch beyond its middle, colouring the cilia above and below it, the cilia (except where so coloured) are whitish. Exp. al. 11-13 mm. Hind wings and cilia bronzy grey, the cilia of the dorsal lobe paler. Abdomen rich rust-brown, with four quadrate whitish patches above – one basal, one ante-median, one post-median, and one on the anal segment; under-side shining white, tinged with yellowish at the sides. Hind legs white, smeared above on the tibiae and banded on the tarsi with pale rust-brown; spurs white, tinged with rust-brown before their extremities, the scales at the base of the spurs not conspicuously raised, rust-brown mixed with white.” [1]

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The species has not been recorded since the 1930s and might well be extinct.

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References:

[1] Charles William Andrews: A monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean). London: printed by order of the Trustees 1900

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edited: 12.08.2022