About Atteva punctella Cramer, 1782
Atteva punctella Cramer, 1782 (also referred to as Atteva pustulella) is a moth of the family Attevidae, known by the common names polilla cigarrito arlequín and little cigarette harlequin moth. This species ranges from Costa Rica, where it occurs alongside Atteva aurea, south to Uruguay and Argentina, and is also found in the Antilles, with multiple confirmed reports from Dominica, Jamaica, Haiti, and Martinique. Its larvae feed exclusively on new shoots of Simarouba amara. There are published records of larvae feeding on Ailanthus altissima in Argentina (Berg 1880), Castela erecta in Saint Croix, Antilles (Walsingham, 1914), and Castela peninsularis, Castela polyandra, and Castela emory in the United States (Powell et al. 1973), however these records are considered doubtful. According to Becker 2009, these doubtful records may stem from misidentification of either the host plant or the moth species.
