''Rectiostoma argyrobasis'' is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

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 ...

. It was described by W. Donald Duckworth in 1971. It is found in the humid low highlands of northern

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

and south-eastern

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. 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 14–16 mm. The forewings are white basally, tinged with yellow on the costal edge. The distal margin of the white area is bordered by a dark brown line immediately paralleled by a broad, transverse band of iridescent blue violet. The apical half of the forewing is dark brown suffused with iridescent bronze-to-violet scales. The hindwings are dark brown with a white patch on the anterior margin and white

hair-pencil Hair-pencils and coremata are pheromone signaling structures present in lepidopteran males. Males use hair-pencils in courtship behaviors with females. The pheromones they excrete serve as both aphrodisiacs and tranquilizers to females as well as ...

s along the anal veins.''Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology'' 106: 25
/ref>

References

Moths described in 1971 Rectiostoma {{Depressariidae-stub