''Vitula pinei'' is a species of

snout moth The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family (biology), family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian Taxonomic rank, superfamily Pyraloidea. In many (particularly older) classifications, the grass moths (Cramb ...

in the genus ''

Vitula ''Vitula'' is a genus of snout moths. It was described by Émile Louis Ragonot in 1887. Species * ''Vitula aegerella'' Neunzig, 1990 * ''Vitula biviella'' Zeller, 1848 * ''Vitula broweri'' (Heinrich, 1956) * ''Vitula coconinoana'' Neunzig, 199 ...

''. It was described by

Carl Heinrich Carl Heinrich (1880 in New York City – 1955) was an American entomologist. Life He studied Greek and drama at the University of Chicago, he moved to Washington D.C., in 1902, where he worked in business. In 1908, he went to New York to study ...

in 1956. It is found in the US states of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. 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 19–21 mm. The forewings are white, finely dusted with fuscous. The hindwings are whitish and semi

hyaline A hyaline substance is one with a glassy appearance. The word is derived from , and . Histopathology Hyaline cartilage is named after its glassy appearance on fresh gross pathology. On light microscopy of H&E stained slides, the extracellula ...

with a smoky line along the termen and some smoky shading on the veins. They feed on the cones ''

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as c ...

'' species.

References

Moths described in 1956 Phycitini {{Phycitini-stub