''Phyllalia patens'' is a species of

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

Eupterotidae Eupterotidae is a family of insects in the order Lepidoptera with more than 300 described species. Diversity The family consists of four subfamilies and the unplaced ''Ganissa group''. The subfamily Eupterotinae consists of about 11 genera, the ...

. It was described by

Jean Baptiste Boisduval Jean Baptiste Alphonse Déchauffour de Boisduval (24 June 1799 – 30 December 1879) was a French lepidopterist, botanist, and physician. He was one of the most celebrated lepidopterists of France, and was the co-founder of the Société entomol ...

in 1847. It is found in

Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...

and

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

and

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

in South Africa. Adults are fawn coloured, with the abdomen and hindwings hardly paler than the forewings. All wings are very broad and rather short. The larvae feed on ''

Cynodon dactylon ''Cynodon dactylon'', commonly known as Bermuda grass, is a grass found worldwide. It is native to Europe, Africa, Australia and much of Asia. It has been introduced to the Americas. Although it is not native to Bermuda, it is an abundant invasi ...

'' and ''

Ehrharta calycina ''Ehrharta calycina'' is a species of grass known by the common names perennial veldtgrass and purple veldtgrass. Distribution It is native to southern Africa; from South Africa (within the Cape Provinces, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal), Lesotho ...

''. They construct a sort of grotto on the ground under the leaves of the host plant, in which it remains concealed during the heat of the day, emerging and feeding in the cool of the evening. The larvae a velvety black body above, while it is pale fulvous underneath. The head is bright red.Fawcett, J. M. 1903. Notes on the Transformations of some South-African Lepidoptera. - ''Transactions of the Zoological Society of London'' 17(2); pp. 173–174

References

Moths described in 1847 Eupterotinae {{Bombycoidea-stub