''Petasanthes'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

moth genus in the family

Depressariidae Depressariidae is a family of moths. It was formerly treated as a subfamily of Gelechiidae, but is now recognised as a separate family, comprising about 2,300 species worldwide. Subfamilies Depressariidae consists of ten subfamilies: * Acriinae ...

. Its only species, ''Petasanthes leucactis'', is found in

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. Both the genus and species were first described by

Edward Meyrick Edward Meyrick (25 November 1854 – 31 March 1938) was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern microlepidoptera systematics. Life and work Ed ...

in 1925. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 26–29 mm. The forewings are deep orange with the costa narrowly black towards the base, from before one-third with a gradually expanded black marginal band widest opposite the apex, where it occupies one-third of the wing, and then rather narrowed along the termen to below the tornus, cut by whitish streaks on all veins. There is a round blackish spot on the transverse vein. The hindwings are orange, with a small blackish spot on the transverse vein, and a moderately broad blackish border cut by indistinct orange lines on the veins around the apex and upper three-fourths of the termen. There is some blackish irroration (sprinkling) towards the dorsum and tornus and sometimes the orange area is almost wholly suffused with blackish, except the costal area from near the base to three-fourths.''Exotic Microlepidoptera''. 3 (5-7): 158.
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References

Moths described in 1925 Stenomatinae Monotypic moth genera {{Stenomatinae-stub