''Ratarda excellens'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic 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 w ...

in the family Cossidae. It is found in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. The length of the forewings is about 16 mm for males and 22 mm for females. The ground colour of the forewings of the males is brown, slightly tinged with a golden lustre. The costal and dorsal areas are pale. There are irregular pale brown patches edged with dark brown, forming several smooth lines. The hindwings are uniform dark brown. There is strong

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

. Females have blackish brown forewings, slightly tinged with a bluish lustre and with irregular black patches forming several lines.The Systematic Position of Shisa excellens (Lepidoptera, Ratardidae)
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References

Natural History Museum Lepidoptera generic names catalog
Ratardinae Moths described in 1917 {{Cossoidea-stub