| Aristotelia penicillata | |
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| Species: | A. penicillata |
| Binomial name | |
| Aristotelia penicillata (Walsingham, 1897) | |
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Aristotelia penicillata is a moth of the family Gelechiidae. It was described by Walsingham in 1897. It is found in West Indies, where it has been recorded from Haiti. [1]
Moths comprise a group of insects related to butterflies, belonging to the order Lepidoptera. Most lepidopterans are moths, and there are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of which have yet to be described. Most species of moth are nocturnal, but there are also crepuscular and diurnal species.
The Gelechiidae are a family of moths commonly referred to as twirler moths or gelechiid moths. They are the namesake family of the huge and little-studied superfamily Gelechioidea, and the family's taxonomy has been subject to considerable dispute. These are generally very small moths with narrow, fringed wings. The larvae of most species feed internally on various parts of their host plants, sometimes causing galls. Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga) is a host plant common to many species of the family, particularly of the genus Chionodes, which as a result is more diverse in North America than usual for Gelechioidea.
The West Indies is a region of the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean that includes the island countries and surrounding waters of three major archipelagos: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and the Lucayan Archipelago.
The wingspan is about 10 mm. The forewings are ochreous, mottled with greyish fuscous and metallic steel-grey, with creamy-white streaks and spots. An oblique greyish-fuscous patch, edged with blackish scales externally, extends from the base of the costa nearly to the dorsum and is immediately followed by a triangular whitish streak of equal length. Two small whitish spots on the costa beyond it are followed around the termen by short streak-spots through the terminal cilia and two small black dots lie on the cell, the first at one-half, the other at its end. The steel-grey mottling appears to accompany the paler markings, except in the case of one patch near the tornus. A rosy tinge appears beyond the edge of the cell and between the black dots upon it. The hindwings are pale grey. [2]
The wingspan of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777-200 has a wingspan of 60.93 metres, and a wandering albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of 3.63 metres, the official record for a living bird. The term wingspan, more technically extent, is also used for other winged animals such as pterosaurs, bats, insects, etc., and other fixed-wing aircraft such as ornithopters. In humans, the term wingspan also refers to the arm span, which is distance between the length from one end of an individual's arms to the other when raised parallel to the ground at shoulder height at a 90º angle. Former professional basketball player Manute Bol stands at 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m) and owns one of the largest wingspans at 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m).
