| Phthorimaea involuta | |
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| Species: | P. involuta |
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| Phthorimaea involuta Meyrick, 1917 | |
Phthorimaea involuta is a moth in the family Gelechiidae. It was described by Meyrick in 1917. It is found in Guyana. [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.
Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. It is the only English speaking country in South America, and is historically and culturally part of the Anglophone-Caribbean. In addition it is one of the founding member countries of the Caribbean Community organization, (CARICOM). Guyana is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Brazil to the south and southwest, Venezuela to the west, and Suriname to the east. With an area of 215,000 square kilometres (83,000 sq mi), Guyana is the third-smallest sovereign state on mainland South America after Uruguay and Suriname.
The wingspan is 9–11 mm. The forewings are grey-whitish or whitish-grey, irrorated with black and with a narrow oblique blackish bar from the costa near the base and a broader one at one-third, both terminated by small yellow-ochreous spots on the fold edged beneath by black marks, the second spot representing the plical stigma. The discal stigmata are yellow-ochreous, edged above and below by black spots, the first obliquely beyond the plical stigma, its margin separated by an ochreous mark from a small blackish spot on the costa above it, the margin of the second usually absorbed in a subquadrate blackish blotch on the costa above it, its lower margin sometimes forming a considerable spot. There is also a well-defined blackish apical blotch. The hindwings are dark grey, subhyaline in the disc anteriorly and towards the dorsum. [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).