''Kiwaia thyraula'' 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. It was described by Edward Meyrick in 1885. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. 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 9–11 mm. The forewings are whitish, irrorated with black. The markings are black and ill-defined. There is a small spot on the costa near the base, and a second obliquely beyond it on the fold. A rather oblique streak runs from the costa beyond one-fourth, reaching half across the wing. There are three small discal spots, the first in the middle, the second on the fold obliquely before the first and almost touching the apex of the transverse streak and the third in the disc beyond the middle. The hindwings are pale whitish-grey.Trans. N.Z. Inst. 18

References

Kiwaia Moths described in 1885 Taxa named by Edward Meyrick Moths of New Zealand Endemic fauna of New Zealand Endemic moths of New Zealand {{Gnorimoschemini-stub