Tinea pellionella
species of lepidopteran insect
Tinea pellionella, the case-bearing clothes moth, is a species of tineoid moth in the family Tineidae, the fungus moths. This species has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring nearly worldwide.
Taxonomy
Being a widespread species and often affiliated with humans, T. pellionella was among the first moths to be scientifically described in the modern sense. At that time most moths were included in a single genus "Phalaena", but Tinea was already recognized as a distinct subgenus. Some later researchers who studied this moth erroneously believed they had discovered populations formerly unknown to science and described them as new species, but today these are all included within T. pellionella. Obsolete scientific names for this moth thus may be encountered in the literature, and include:
Phalaena (Tinea) pellionella Linnaeus, 1758
Phalaena zoolegella Scopoli, 1763
Tinea demiurga Meyrick, 1920
Tinea gerasimovi Zagulajev, 1978
Tinea pelliomella (lapsus)
It is the type species of the genus Tinea, which in turn is the type genus of the subfamily, family, as well as the superfamily Tineoidea. Its scientific name is derived from "tinea", a generic term for micromoths, and the Latin term for a furrier, pellionellus.
Another common name is "bagworm" due to the case that their larvae carry around, but not to be confused with the Psychidae that are also called "bagworms" in English.
Description
It is silvery grey to shiny light brown in color, with dark grayish hairs on the top of its head. The adult of this species has a wingspan of 9 to 16 millimeters.
“Tinea pellionella” enters the record as species of lepidopteran insect. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tinea, pellionella and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Tinea pellionella” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Tinea, pellionella and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q647307. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1758, 1763, 1920 and 1978.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tinea pellionella” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.