''Palaephatus dimorphus'' is a
moth of the family
Palaephatidae
Palaephatoidea is a superfamily of insects in the order Lepidoptera with a single family, Palaephatidae with seven known genera. These "Gondwanaland moths" exhibit a disjunct distribution occurring mainly in South America (Davis, 1986), with fou ...
. It is found in much of the southern temperate forests of montane
Argentina and
Chile.
The length of the forewings is 12–13 mm for males and 13–15 mm for females. Adults have brownish forewings. In males, these are mottled with darker brown to fuscous. Females have whitish buff forewings and similar markings as the males, but the pattern has much
more contrast. They are on wing from September to March, possibly in multiple generations per year.
A New Family of Monotrysian Moths from Austral South America (Lepidoptera: Palaephatidae), with a Phylogenetic Review of the Monotrysia
Etymology
The species name is derived from Greek ''di'' (meaning two) and ''morphe'' (meaning form) and refers to the distinctive sexual dimorphism of this species.
References
Moths described in 1986
Palaephatidae
Taxa named by Donald R. Davis (entomologist)
{{Palaephatoidea-stub