''Compsoctena fossoria'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

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, in Ramsbury – 31 March 1938, at Thornhanger, Marlborough) was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern micr ...

in 1920. It is found in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The

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

is 19–21 mm. The forewings are grey, much suffused with whitish. There is a basal fascia of dark fuscous suffused irroration (sprinkling), continued as a broad streak along the costa to two-fifths, thence rather obliquely across the wing to near the dorsum, again angulated and continued to near the costa at four-fifths, with a branch to the tornus. A similar spot is found on the costa beyond the middle, and three or four small spots on the costa posteriorly. The hindwings are light fuscous grey.Meyrick, E. (1920)
"Descriptions of South African Microlepidoptera"
''Annals of the South African Museum''. 17: 310.

References

Endemic moths of South Africa Moths described in 1920 Compsoctena Lepidoptera of South Africa {{Eriocottidae-stub Taxa named by Edward Meyrick