''Compsoctena furciformis'' is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

in the family

Eriocottidae Eriocottidae or Old World spiny-winged moths is a family of insects in the order Lepidoptera whose position relative to other members of the superfamily Tineoidea is currently unknown. There are two subfamilies, Compsocteninae and Eriocottinae. ...

. It was described by

Edward Meyrick Edward Meyrick (25 November 1854 – 31 March 1938) was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern microlepidoptera systematics. Life and work Ed ...

in 1921. It is found in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 21–22 mm. The forewings are whitish fuscous, reticulated with brown sprinkled with blackish. The markings are brown irregularly sprinkled or irrorated with black, especially on the veins. There is a moderate ill-defined basal fascia and a moderate fascia from two-fifths of the costa to the middle of the dorsum, the anterior edge almost straight and the posterior edge obtusely angulated below the middle. There is a moderate fascia from two-thirds of the costa to the tornus, narrowed near the lower extremity, with a rather excurved narrower branch running from its middle to the costa before the apex. The hindwings are rather dark grey.

References

Moths described in 1921 Compsoctena Lepidoptera of South Africa Insects of Zimbabwe {{Eriocottidae-stub