Paraplatyptilia petrodactylus
Encyclopedia
Paraplatyptilia petrodactylus is a moth
of the Pterophoridae family. It is found in North America
(including Iowa
).
The wingspan
is about 23 mm. The head, thorax and abdomen are shaded cinereous. The legs are cinereous and slightly thickened at the joints. The forewings are white, shaded with cinereous or ashy brown and the costa is brownish beyond the middle. There is an oblique brownish fuscous line, starting from the costa before the apex and extending inward more obliquely than the outer margin, but not reaching the fissure. This line is widest on the costa, tapering to a point inwardly, and is darker at its lower end. The fringes are white within the fissure, with a cinereous line found near their bases, shaded with fuscous at the anal angle. The hindwings are pale cinereous and the fringes are slightly darker towards the end of the feathers.
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
of the Pterophoridae family. It is found in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
(including Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
).
The wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
is about 23 mm. The head, thorax and abdomen are shaded cinereous. The legs are cinereous and slightly thickened at the joints. The forewings are white, shaded with cinereous or ashy brown and the costa is brownish beyond the middle. There is an oblique brownish fuscous line, starting from the costa before the apex and extending inward more obliquely than the outer margin, but not reaching the fissure. This line is widest on the costa, tapering to a point inwardly, and is darker at its lower end. The fringes are white within the fissure, with a cinereous line found near their bases, shaded with fuscous at the anal angle. The hindwings are pale cinereous and the fringes are slightly darker towards the end of the feathers.