| Chionodes helicosticta | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Gelechiidae |
| Genus: | Chionodes |
| Species: | C. helicosticta |
| Binomial name | |
| Chionodes helicosticta (Meyrick, 1929) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Chionodes helicosticta is a moth in the Gelechiidae family. [1] It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Texas, Arizona, California and Oregon. [2] [3]
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.
North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere; it is also considered by some to be a northern subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea.
The wingspan is 19–22 mm. The forewings are rather dark fuscous with a short black subcostal dash near the base, preceded and followed by whitish-brown scales or marks, sometimes a black dot beyond this. A shorter black pale-tipped dash is found on the fold somewhat beyond this. The discal stigmata are darker, laterally edged by ochreous-white scales, or sometimes reduced to pale ochreous dots, with the plical rather darker or sometimes blackish, preceded and followed by white scales, obliquely before the first discal. A faint spot of pale ochreous suffusion is found on the costa at two-thirds and there is a marginal series of small indistinct blackish dots around the posterior part of the costa and termen, sometimes accompanied by minute ochreous-white dots. The hindwings are light bluish-grey. [4]
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).
The larvae feed on Eriogonum nudum .
