''Compsoctena terrestris'' 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 ...

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 m ...

in 1914. 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 count ...

, where it has been recorded from

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

. 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 ...

is 16–18 mm for males and 22–23 mm for females. The forewings are fuscous somewhat sprinkled with whitish fuscous, and with dark fuscous scales tending to form very obscure scattered strigulae. The hindwings are rather dark fuscous.

References

Endemic moths of South Africa Moths described in 1914 Compsoctena Lepidoptera of South Africa {{Eriocottidae-stub