Trichoptilus viduus

Trichoptilus viduus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Euarthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pterophoridae
Genus:	Trichoptilus
Species:	T. viduus
Binomial name
	Trichoptilus viduus; Meyrick, 1917 [1]

Last updated March 16, 2019

Trichoptilus viduus is a moth of the family Pterophoridae that is known from South Africa.

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 Pterophoridae or plume moths are a family of Lepidoptera with unusually modified wings. Though they belong to the Apoditrysia like the larger moths and the butterflies, unlike these they are tiny and were formerly included among the assemblage called "microlepidoptera".

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini (Swaziland); and it surrounds the enclaved country of Lesotho. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status. The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European (White), Asian (Indian), and multiracial (Coloured) ancestry.

Description

The wingspan is 14–15 millimetres (0.55–0.59 in). The head and thorax are fuscous with some whitish scales. The palpi are fuscous and the apex of the joints white. The abdomen is ochreous-grey, with a lateral row of white spots. The forewings are fuscous irrorated with darker, there is a blackish dot in a disc and two dots transversely placed at the base of the cleft. There are narrow irregular white transverse bars on both segments. The cilia are grey mixed with blackish towards the base and with white spots on the margins of the markings and above and below the apex of each segment, on the dorsum with blackish scale-projections between these. The tornal white patch is the largest. The hindwings are dark fuscous, the third segment grey irrorated with dark fuscous. The cilia are fuscous, on dorsum with a rather small blackish scale-projection and a few white scales before this.^[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).

Thorax frontal part of an animals body, between its head and abdomen

The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans and various other animals located between the neck and the abdomen. The thorax includes the thoracic cavity and the thoracic wall. It contains organs including the heart, lungs, and thymus gland, as well as muscles and various other internal structures. Many diseases may affect the chest, and one of the most common symptoms is chest pain.

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References

↑ Archived 1 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine Archived from the original 1 May 2012.
↑ "Annals of the South African Museum. Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum". Archive.org. Retrieved 4 April 2011.

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[1] Archived 1 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine Archived from the original 1 May 2012.

[2] "Annals of the South African Museum. Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum". Archive.org. Retrieved 4 April 2011.