''Udea phaealis'' 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

Crambidae Crambidae comprises the grass moth family of lepidopterans. They are variable in appearance, with the nominal subfamily Crambinae (grass moths) taking up closely folded postures on grass stems where they are inconspicuous, while other subfamilies ...

. It was described by

George Hampson Sir George Francis Hampson, 10th Baronet (14 January 1860 – 15 October 1936) was an English entomologist. Hampson studied at Charterhouse School and Exeter College, Oxford. He travelled to India to become a tea-planter in the Nilgiri Hills ...

in 1899. It is found in

Orizaba Orizaba (, Otomi: ) is a city and municipality in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is located 20 km west of its sister city Córdoba, and is adjacent to Río Blanco and Ixtaczoquitlán, on Federal Highways 180 and 190. The city had a ...

, Mexico. 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 about 20 mm. The forewings are dark brown, irrorated (sprinkled) and suffused with black. There is an indistinct sinuous antemedial line, angled outwards below the cell. There are oblique black annuli at the middle of the cell and on the discocellulars and the postmedial line is defined by ochreous on the outer side, excurved between veins 6 and 2, then retracted to below the angle of the cell. There are some black points on the costa towards the apex and a terminal series of ochreous points. The hindwings are fuscous, with two dark points on the discocellulars and traces of a postmedial line, excurved between veins 5 and 2. There is also a terminal series of black points.''Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London'' 1899: 244

References

phaealis Moths described in 1899 {{Udea-stub