Phil Bendle Collection:Pterophorus monospilalis (Plume moth)

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Pterophoridae
Genus: Pterophorus
Species: P. monospilalis
Binomial name: Pterophorus monospilalis
Synonyms: Aciptilus monospilalis , Aciptilia patruelis, Aciptilia lycosema

Pterophorus monospilalis is a moth of the Pterophoridae family. It is found in New Zealand, where it is known from the North and South islands and Stewart Island. It has a wingspan of 21–23 mm. The head, palpi, antennae, thorax, abdomen, and legs are white. The forewings are snow-white with a few brownish-ochreous scales, a blackish dot before the cleft and a minute one on the inner margin before the middle. The hindwings and cilia are snow-white.
The larvae feed on young new tips of Pseudopanax arboreus but have also been recorded on Raukaua species and Schefflera digitata.
There is a form of Pterophorus monospilalis that has a brown streak on the forewing.

Photo of the above moth taken through weindow it was resting on.

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