A noun appearing as ᴱQ. malo “moth” in the Qenya Lexicon of the 1910s derived from primitive ᴱ✶[mal]wǝ under the early root ᴱ√MALA “crush, squeeze, pulp” (QL/58). It had a plural malwi, and in the Poetic and Mythological Words of Eldarissa it was given the stem form of malu-.

Neo-Quenya: This word conflicts with later words like ᴹQ. malo (malu-) “pollen, yellow powder” (Ety/SMAL) or “rust” (PE21/12; PE15/77), making its continued validity as “moth” rather questionable. However, the only other attested Elvish “moth” word is G. fufril of unclear etymology (GL/36), making it very challenging to adapt to Neo-Quenya. Thus I currently recommend retaining ᴺQ. malo for “moth”, as a derivative of the later root ᴹ√MBAL, but altering its stem form to malo- (< *mbalō) to make it more distinct from the “pollen, rust” words.