| Gelechia traducella | |
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| Species: | G. traducella |
| Binomial name | |
| Gelechia traducella Busck, 1914 | |
Gelechia traducella is a moth of the family Gelechiidae. It was described by August Busck in 1914. It is found in Panama and Brazil. [1]
Moths are a polyphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. 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.
August Busck was a Danish entomologist who became an American citizen. Busck was an employee of the Bureau of Entomology within USDA. He is best known for his work with microlepidoptera, of which he described over 600 species. His collections of Lepidoptera from North America and the Panama Canal Zone are held by the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
The wingspan is about 12 mm. The forewings are black with a light yellow, oblique fascia from the basal fourth of the costa to the basal third of the dorsum and with a spot of the same colour on the apical fourth of the costa. The hindwings are blackish fuscous. [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 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).