''Pithanurga'' is

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 "unispec ...

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 ...

genus in the family

Gelechiidae The Gelechiidae are a family of moths commonly referred to as twirler moths or gelechiid moths. They are the namesake family of the huge and little-studied superfamily Gelechioidea, and the family's taxonomy has been subject to considerable d ...

. Its only species, ''Pithanurga chariphila'', 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 ...

. Both the genus and species were first described by

Edward Meyrick Edward Meyrick (25 November 1854, in Ramsbury – 31 March 1938, at Thornhanger, Marlborough) was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern m ...

in 1921. 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 about 9 mm. The forewings are white, slightly sprinkled with pale grey. The markings are formed by grey suffusion speckled with blackish. There is an elongate spot along the basal fifth of the costa and a semioval blotch along the dorsum before the middle, as well as a triangular blotch extending over the median third of the costa and reaching two-thirds of the way across the wing, its discal portion is occupied by an oblique-oblong light yellow-ochreous spot. The apical fourth is suffusedly irrorated (sprinkled) with grey, preceded on the tornus by an undefined small pale yellow-ochreous spot with some black scales. The hindwings are pale grey.

References

Endemic moths of South Africa Gelechiinae Monotypic moth genera Gelechiidae genera Taxa named by Edward Meyrick {{Gelechiinae-stub