Tineola bisselliella, known as the common clothes moth, webbing clothes moth, or simply clothing moth, is a species of fungus moth (family Tineidae, subfamily Tineinae). It is the type species of its genus Tineola and was first described by the Swedish entomologist Arvid David Hummel in 1823. The specific name is commonly misspelled biselliella – for example by G. A. W. Herrich-Schäffer, when he established Tineola in 1853. The larvae (caterpillars) of this moth are considered a serious pest, as they can derive nourishment from clothing – in particular wool, but many other natural fibres – and also, like most related species, from stored foods, such as grains.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Tineola bisselliella has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens80
BINs1
Marker genes2
eDNA detections78
Countries11
The DNA barcodethe species' typical barcode, built from every sequenced specimen
COI-5P658 bp consensus68 specimens
ACGT
▸ drag or hover over the strip to read any position — letter and how much it varies
Violet ticks below the strip = positions where individuals differ; flat = the species' unchanging signature. 99% of positions are identical in every specimen.
Where individuals differ — all 5 variable positions, in barcode order
Each circle is a barcode variant; bigger = more specimens, colour = region. Lines join the most similar variants and the tick marks count the mutations between them — a tight cluster is one “dialect”, a long line a more divergent lineage. Click a circle to list its actual specimens.
Diversity (π)0.59%
Haplotypes4
BIN1
Most divergent pair0.91%
EuropeOther
Closest relatives by DNA barcode
The species whose COI barcode is most similar to this one — a quick “who is this most like”. The percentage is how much the barcode differs; it approximates, but is not, the full evolutionary tree.
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★COI-5P18S-5P
animal barcoderibosomal
06Genome at a glanceGoaT · NCBI
The complete instruction manualTineola bisselliella carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Genome size≈248 792 533 bp assembly estimate
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
BACTERIUM Carsonella ruddii0.00016 Gb
FUNGUS0.04 Gb
THIS GENOME Tineola bisselliella0.25 Gb
INSECT0.25 Gb
HUMAN3.2 Gb
WHEAT17 Gb
FERN Tmesipteris160.45 Gb
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
Assembly levelChromosome
07Deep time0.01–0 Ma
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
Fossil range0.01–0 Ma Pleistocene, Holocene
Dated fossil finds1
StatusStill living record runs to the present
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Tineola bisselliella. Above itBeside it, each dot is one dated fossil find — few enough to count, so they are drawn individually rather than as a graph.
fossil range (PBDB)each dot = one dated find
How it livedPBDB
Environmentterrestrial
Motilityactively mobile
Compositionchitin
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type2 582 records
Wild obs. + sensor1 868
Museum / vouchered697
Fossil1
Other16
Origin
Introduced43
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO5 444 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy72% within 1 km
≤100 m 919≤1 km 261≤10 km 377>10 km 85
1 642 georeferenced · 226 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor1 868
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy67% within 1 km
≤100 m 168≤1 km 110≤10 km 130>10 km 9
417 georeferenced · 280 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence697
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions28 of 62 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
DanishLepidopterologicalSocietylocation not on record
77
Museum of Zoology at the University of Bergen, Invertebrate Collectionlocation not on record
47
Zoological Museum of the University of Chittagong, Bangladeshlocation not on record
44
Tartu, EE
37
Uniwersytet Łódzkilocation not on record
36
Provincia di Livornolocation not on record
31
Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record
21
NHMOlocation not on record
19
Tilburg, NL
19
Garðabær, IS
18
DPIlocation not on record
18
Vernal, US
17
Instytut Systematyki i Ewolucji Zwierząt Polskiej Akademii Nauklocation not on record
17
King Saud Universitylocation not on record
17
SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record
16
St. Paul, US
15
New Haven, US
12
RMZlocation not on record
11
Tallinn, EE
10
Georgia Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
9
Stockholm, SE
8
Cambridge, US
8
Washington, US
8
Salzburg, AT
8
Edmonton, CA
8
Nijmegen, NL
6
East Lansing, US
6
San Francisco, US
6
South Kensington, GB
5
SFRAlocation not on record
5
University of Alberta Museums (UAM)location not on record
4
ASUlocation not on record
4
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Sciencelocation not on record
4
Auckland, NZ
4
Helsinki, FI
4
QVMAGlocation not on record
3
ZSMlocation not on record
3
SOVTlocation not on record
2
Royal Saskatchewan Museumlocation not on record
2
Australian National Insect Collectionlocation not on record
2
Essig Museum of Entomologylocation not on record
1
Rovaniemi, FI
1
BioFokuslocation not on record
1
MWLRlocation not on record
1
neflocation not on record
1
Natick, US
1
Museums Victorialocation not on record
1
Geneva, CH
1
University Park, US
1
ZMAAlocation not on record
1
US
1
Musee d'Histoire Naturallelocation not on record
1
Chicago, US
1
Philadelphia, US
1
New Zealand Arthropod Collectionlocation not on record
1
University of Kaiserslauternlocation not on record
1
Frauenfeld, CH
1
Kuopio, FI
1
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, OH (CLEV)location not on record
1
Albuquerque, US
1
Natural History Museum, Londonlocation not on record
1
NCMGlocation not on record
1
62 institutions · 613 of 697 vouchered records shown · 83 without an institution code
09Environmental DNA78 detections
Where the DNA of Tineola bisselliella was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found78
Studies independent surveys1
Countries11
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 78 detections have coordinates
Open the map11 countries0
Garden centre
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median12.0 °C 5.60–17.2
Seasonal swing summer↔winter18.9 °C
Max temp (day)15.3 °C 8.70–22.0
Min temp (night)7.60 °C 1.20–11.9
Precipitation71.1 mm/mo 46.2–87.8
Air humidity58.5 % 54.6–63.5
Moisture balance-10.6 mm/mo -53.8–10.2
Vapour deficit565 Pa 341–836
Wind speed3.40 m/s 2.40–4.40
Cloud cover45.9 % 30.1–52.8
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 68 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation10 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility2 581 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI78 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics80 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗