Euclemensia woodiella

Description

Euclemensia woodiella, the Manchester tinea (or Manchester moth, since it does not belong to the Tineoidea), is a yellow and brown British moth. It is regarded as extinct, and is known from only three museum specimens, one of which is held by the Manchester Museum, one by the Natural History Museum, London, and the type, which is in the Curtis Collection at Museum Victoria. At first placed in Pancalia or Schiffermuelleria, in 1864 it was separated in a monotypic genus Hamadryas by Clemens. However, his proposed genus name had already been used in 1806, when J. Hübner gave it to the cracker butterflies; Clemens' name was thus a junior homonym and invalid. To replace it, A.R. Grote in 1878 erected the current genus, Euclemensia, honoring Clemens' effort. This too was monotypic at first, and while the relationships of the Manchester tinea are now difficult to study in sufficient detail to determine if such a separation is appropriate, it does still indicate that a quite distinct and peculiar lineage was lost with the extinction of this moth.