Thectophila is a genus of moth

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...

s in the Cosmopterigidae

Cosmopterigidae

Cosmopterigidae is a family of insects in the Lepidoptera order. These are small moths with narrow wings whose tiny larvae feed internally on the leaves, seeds, stems, etc of their host plants. There are about 1,500 described species...

 family, although some sources place it in the Blastodacnidae family. The genus contains only one species, Thectophila acmotypa. It is endemic to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, where it is only known from the Arthur's Pass.

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 12.5 mm. All wings are lanceolate, with acutely pointed apices. The forewings are creamy white, narrowly edged with ochreous, a black streak at the apex terminates in a tuft of black cilia. The remaining cilia are whitish. The adults appear in February and can be found amongst rough herbage on mountainsides.

Nothing is known about its biology or host plant.