''Phiala similis'' 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 ...

in the family

Eupterotidae Eupterotidae is a family of insects in the order Lepidoptera with more than 300 described species. Diversity The family consists of four subfamilies and the unplaced ''Ganissa group''. The subfamily Eupterotinae consists of about 11 genera, the ...

. It was described by

Per Olof Christopher Aurivillius Per Olof Christopher Aurivillius (15 January 1843 – 20 July 1928) was a Swedish entomologist. Life Christopher Aurivillius was born at Forsa, Sweden. He was the director of the Natural History Museum in Stockholm and he specialised in Cole ...

in 1911. It is found in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) 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 , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan ...

is 47 mm. Adults are white, the wings beyond the middle with a common series of more or less connected black spots on the veins, but otherwise nearly destitute of black scales.Aurivillius, C. 1911a. New genera and species of African Striphnopterygidae and Lasiocampidae in the British Museum. - ''Transactions of the Entomological Society of London'' 1911(1):161–167

References

Endemic moths of South Africa Moths described in 1911 Eupterotinae {{Bombycoidea-stub