''Hellinsia nivalis'' 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 ...

of the family

Pterophoridae The Pterophoridae or plume moths are a family of Lepidoptera with unusually modified wings. Though they belong to the Apoditrysia like the larger moths and the butterflies, unlike these they are tiny and were formerly included among the assemblag ...

. It is found in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

and

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

. 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 22–24 mm. The head is ochreous sprinkled with whitish and the upper half of the face is brown edged beneath with whitish. The antennae are ochreous and the thorax is brownish-ochreous, anteriorly more or less suffused with whitish. The abdomen is brownish-ochreous, but the base and an interrupted lateral streak are white. The forewings are brownish-ochreous, irregularly and variably sprinkled and mixed with white, and sprinkled with dark fuscous. The hindwings are grey. Adults are on wing in May.

References

nivalis Moths of the Caribbean Moths described in 1908 {{Oidaematophorini-stub