''Helcystogramma daedalea'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

in the family

Gelechiidae The Gelechiidae are a family of moths commonly referred to as twirler moths or gelechiid moths. They are the namesake family of the huge and little-studied superfamily Gelechioidea, and the family's taxonomy has been subject to considerable dis ...

. It was described by Walsingham in 1911. It is found in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

(Tabasco). The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is about 14 mm. There is a short shining grey basal patch on the forewings, ill-defined externally where it is margined by a dark brown shade, extending to nearly half the wing-length and containing a shining lilac-grey patch on the dorsum. There is a slender shining steel-blue line on the costa, and beneath it two bright yellowish ochreous streaks, between which is a second submetallic line and two blackish length-streaks, one along the upper edge of the fold, the other, shorter, beneath the costa at one-third, followed by some pale whitish ochreous scaling. A broad central band, ill-defined on its inner side, consists of a shining steel-grey patch throwing up a projection to the upper angle of the cell, widely margined towards the costa and narrowly along its outer edge by tawny black. Beyond this band the remaining portion of the wing is rich tawny chestnut, with a small whitish ochreous triangular patch on the costa, adjacent to the dark band. The hindwings are brownish fuscous.Biol. centr.-amer. Lep. Heterocera 4 : 100

References

Moths described in 1911

daedalea ''Daedalea'' is a genus of fungi in the family Fomitopsidaceae. The genus was circumscribed in 1801 by mycologist Christian Hendrik Persoon, based on the type '' D. quercina'' and four other species. The generic name is derived from the Anc ...

Moths of Central America {{Helcystogramma-stub