''Udea tetragramma'' is a species of

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 subfamily

Spilomelinae Spilomelinae is a very species-rich subfamily of the lepidopteran family Crambidae, the crambid snout moths. With 4,180 described species in 351 genera worldwide, it is the most speciose group among pyraloidea, pyraloids. Description Imagines ...

of 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

John Frederick Gates Clarke John Frederick Gates Clarke (February 22, 1905 – September 17, 1990) was a Canadian-American entomologist and an authority on moths. He worked at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natu ...

in 1965 based on specimens collected on the

Juan Fernandez Islands ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Philipp ...

, an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean and part of

Insular Chile Insular Chile, also called ''Las islas Esporádicas'', or "the Sporadic Islands", is a scattered group of oceanic islands of volcanic origin located in the South Pacific, and which are under the sovereignty of Chile. The islands lie on the N ...

. The species is also found on

Rapa Nui Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

, where it has been accidentally introduced. 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 17–18 mm. The forewings are fuscous, strongly overlaid with ferruginous. There is a straight, transverse, ill-defined, fuscous line at two-fifths of the costa, extending to the dorsum at the basal third. From the apical sixth of the costa extends a transverse, ill-defined line to vein 2, then along vein 2 to the cell, then diagonally, outwardly and then straight to the dorsum at the outer two-thirds. There are three small white dots in the cell, preceded and followed by blackish-fuscous scales. There are also four ochreous-tawny spots on the outer half of the costa, alternating with suffused shades of blackish fuscous. On the termen, there are seven small, ill-defined blackish-fuscous dots. The hindwings are greyish fuscous. On the discocellulars and the bases of veins 6 and 8 there is a black spot preceded by a whitish area of the wing. From the apical fourth of the costa there is an irregular blackish-fuscous line, extending to the anal veins. The species was originally described as ''

Mnesictena ''Mnesictena'' is a genus of snout moths in the subfamily Spilomelinae, where it is placed in the tribe Udeini. The genus was erected by the English entomologist Edward Meyrick in 1884. The currently known seven species are exclusively found on ...

tetragramma'', but was later transferred to the genus ''

Udea ''Udea'' is a genus of snout moths in the subfamily Spilomelinae of the family Crambidae. The genus was erected by Achille Guenée in 1845. The currently known 216 species are present on all continents except Antarctica. About 41 species are na ...

''.

References

tetragramma Moths described in 1965 {{Udea-stub