__NOTOC__ ''Petula'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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 ...

s belonging to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Tineidae Tineidae is a family of moths in the order Lepidoptera described by Pierre André Latreille in 1810. Collectively, they are known as fungus moths or tineid moths. The family contains considerably more than 3,000 species in more than 300 genera. ...

. There is presently only one species in this genus: ''Petula phalarata'', that was described from

Rapa Iti Rapa, also called Rapa Iti, or "Little Rapa", to distinguish it from Easter Island, whose Polynesian name is Rapa Nui, is the largest and only inhabited island of the Bass Islands in French Polynesia. An older name for the island is Oparo. The ...

. 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 9–16 mm. The forewing ground color is fuscous black, on the middle of the dorsum with a cream buff spot (in females, the spot is suffused, larger, and not as sharply defined as in males), sometimes extended as a narrow cream buff line on the dorsal edge. At the end of the cell is an ill-defined black spot. The hindwings are grey, paler basally, with a brassy hue.Gates-Clarke, 1971. Lepidoptera of Rapa island.
/ref>

References

Tineidae Monotypic moth genera Moths of Oceania Tineidae genera {{Tineidae-stub