| Ephysteris semiophanes | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Gelechiidae |
| Genus: | Ephysteris |
| Species: | E. semiophanes |
| Binomial name | |
| Ephysteris semiophanes (Meyrick, 1918) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Ephysteris semiophanes is a moth in the Gelechiidae family. It was described by Meyrick in 1918. It is found in Sri Lanka. [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.
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea. The island is historically and culturally intertwined with the Indian subcontinent, but is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city, Colombo.
The wingspan is about 11 mm. The forewings are brown irrorated dark fuscous with a broad deep yellow-ochreous dorsal stripe from the base, the upper edge indented on the plical stigma, beyond this forming a rounded blotch extending to the discal stigmata, then much narrowed to beyond the tornus, including irregular longitudinal silvery marks towards the base and beyond the middle, and a dot on the tornus. There is an oblique fascia of silvery suffusion at one-fourth and a patch towards the middle of the costa. The stigmata are small, indistinct and dark fuscous, the plical obliquely before the first discal, both these followed by small white dots, the second discal is preceded by a small white dot and surmounted by a small yellow-ochreous spot. A small yellow-ochreous spot is located beneath the costa towards the apex, and some suffusion is found along the termen. There are also some small cloudy white marginal dots around the posterior part of the costa and termen. The hindwings are 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).