''Sesommata leuroptera'' is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

of the family

Palaephatidae Palaephatoidea is a superfamily of insects in the order Lepidoptera with a single family, Palaephatidae with seven known genera. These "Gondwanaland moths" exhibit a disjunct distribution occurring mainly in South America (Davis, 1986), with fo ...

. It was described by Davis in 1986."A New Family of Monotrysian Moths from Austral South America (Lepidoptera: Palaephatidae), with a Phylogenetic Review of the Monotrysia"
by Donald R. Davis. It is found in the southern temperate forests of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. The length of the forewings is 5–7 mm for males and 6.5–7 mm for females. Adult males have smooth, brownish fuscous to black forewings, sometimes with a few scattered white scales. The forewings of the females are usually light in colour, with white scales along the costa and scattered over the distal half. Adults are on wing from November to March, probably in one generation per year.

Etymology

The species name is derived from Greek ''leuros'' (meaning smooth or level) and ''pteron'' (meaning feather or wing) and refers to the smooth scale vestiture over the entire forewing of the male.

References

Moths described in 1986 Palaephatidae {{Palaephatoidea-stub