''Istrianis crauropa'' 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 Gelechiidae. It is found in southern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. 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 6 mm. The forewings are dark grey, sprinkled whitish and with undefined elongate spots of blackish irroration on the costa at one-fifth, two-fifths, and three-fifths, separated and last followed by small suffused whitish spots. There is a black subbasal dot on the dorsum surrounded by ochreous-brownish suffusion and there is an oblique black bar in the disc at one-fourth, surrounded by ochreous-brown. Several ochreous-brown tufts are found in the disc and there is some irregular ochreous-brown suffusion, as well as small blackish dots posteriorly. The hindwings are pale grey. The larvae feed on the leaves of ''

Butea frondosa ''Butea monosperma'' is a species of ''Butea'' native to tropical and sub-tropical parts of the South Asia and Southeast Asia, ranging across Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, ...

''. Pupation takes place in a spindle shaped cocoon made on the leaf.Exotic Microlep. 2 (5): 130

References

Moths described in 1918 Istrianis {{Litini-stub