''Telphusa retecta'' 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 ...

of the family Gelechiidae first described by Edward Meyrick in 1921. It is found in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. 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 . The forewings are dark grey, slightly and irregularly speckled with whitish and with small blackish spots at and near the base on the costa, as well as a small white spot on the base of the dorsum, followed by an irregular semi-oval blackish blotch extending to about the middle of the dorsum, posteriorly suffused, and reaching more than halfway across the wing. A longitudinal streak of light brownish suffusion is found above this blotch and there is a blackish elongate mark on the costa before the middle, as well as a blackish oblique streak beneath this reaching to the middle of the wing, the extremity representing the first discal stigma, the plical stigma black, beneath this, edged posteriorly with whitish. The second discal stigma is black, edged laterally with whitish and forms the apex of a dark fuscous elongate-triangular blotch from the costa above it. The posterior part of the costa and upper part of the termen are obscurely spotted with whitish sprinkles, dark fuscous between the spots. The hindwings are grey, thinly scaled and pale in the disc anteriorly.

References

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* endemic moths of South Africa moths described in 1921 Telphusa Taxa named by Edward Meyrick {{Litini-stub