| Teldenia alba | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Drepanidae |
| Genus: | Teldenia |
| Species: | T. alba |
| Binomial name | |
| Teldenia alba Moore, 1882 | |
Teldenia alba is a moth in the family Drepanidae. It was described by Moore in 1882. [1] It is found in Sri Lanka. [2]
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 Drepanidae is a family of moths with about 660 species described worldwide. They are generally divided in three subfamilies which share the same type of hearing organ. Thyatirinae, previously often placed in their own family, bear a superficial resemblance to Noctuidae. Many species in the Drepanid family have a distinctively hook-shaped apex to the forewing, leading to their common name of hook-tips.
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 length of the forewings is 9-11.5 mm for males and 13-13.5 mm for females. [3] Adults are greyish white, both wings with a transverse discal zigzag band, composed of purplish lunules with black-speckled inner borders. Beyond the lunular band is a very indistinct pale purplish-brown lunular line and a marginal row of black dots. In females, the lunular band has a confluent purplish-brown line and the outer line and marginal black dots are more distinct. [4]
