''Tortilia charadritis'' 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

Stathmopodidae Stathmopodidae is a family of moths in the moth superfamily Gelechioidea described by Edward Meyrick in 1913. Taxonomy and systematics *'' Actinoscelis'' Meyrick, 1912 *'' Aeoloscelis'' Meyrick, 1897 *'' Arauzona'' Walker, 865/small> *'' Atrijug ...

family. It is found from

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

through the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

to western

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. It is an introduced species in the eastern part of the United States. 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 7–9 mm. Adults have a yellow head and forewings. There is a brown basal spot. The hindwings are shining greyish white. Adults have been recorded from May to July. The larvae feed on the leaves of various '' Cassia'', that have been imported to the United States from

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

. Larvae have also been found on the fruits of various ''

Ziziphus ''Ziziphus'' is a genus of about 40 species of spiny shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae, distributed in the warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of the world. The leaves are alternate, entire, with three promi ...

'' species.

References

Stathmopodidae Moths of Africa Moths of the Middle East Moths of Asia Moths described in 1924 Taxa named by Edward Meyrick {{Stathmopodidae-stub