''Prototheora parachlora'' is a species of

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 ...

of the family

Prototheoridae ''Prototheora'' is a genus of moths. It is the only genus of the Prototheoridae, or the African primitive ghost moths, a family of insects in the lepidopteran order, contained in the superfamily Hepialoidea. These moths are endemic to Southern Af ...

. 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 countri ...

, where it is only known from the

Karkloof Forest The Karkloof Forest is situated in the Karkloof Nature Reserve, 22 km north of Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This is a large (936ha) mistbelt forest containing yellowwoods ('' Afrocarpus falcatus'', ''Podocarpus latifolius'' and ''P ...

region of

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

. 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 of ...

is about 15 mm. The only known adult was collected in late January.

References

Endemic moths of South Africa Hepialoidea Moths described in 1919 Moths of Africa {{Hepialoidea-stub