''Palnissa'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

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 ...

genus of the family

Erebidae The Erebidae are a family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromoth groups. The family includes the underwings ('' Catocala'') ...

. Its only species, ''Palnissa spatula'', is known from the

Palani Hills The Palani Hills are a mountain range in the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Palani Hills are an eastward extension of the Western Ghats ranges, which run parallel to the west coast of India. The Palani Hills adjoin the hi ...

of south-central India. Both the genus and the species were first described by Michael Fibiger in 2008. 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 11 mm. The forewing is long, pointed and grey and brownish. The crosslines are broad and black at the costa. The terminal line is marked by black interveinal dots. The hindwing is light greyish with an indistinct discal spot. The fringes are whitish. The underside is beige, although the underside of the hindwing is whitish with an indistinct discal spot.

References

* Micronoctuini Moth genera Monotypic moth genera {{Micronoctuini-stub