Basalia melanosticta is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Micronoctuidae

Micronoctuidae

The Micronoctuidae are a family of moths that includes about 400 described species. The family was first described in 2005.Micronoctua karsholti is the smallest of all species in the Noctuoidea superfamily.-Taxonomic History:...

 family. It is known from the Palni Hills in south-central India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Adults have been recorded in August.

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

is 17-19 mm. The crosslines are double, distinct and black at the costa. The terminal line is marked by black interveinal dots. There is a characteristic diffuse, black, oblique streak from the apex of the forewing to the postmedial line at the ventral margin. The terminal line has dark interveinal dots. The hindwing is light greyish and the terminal line brown. The fringes are basally beige and there is an indistinct discal spot. The underside is greyish and brown. The forewing have a well marked antemedial and postmedial line and a yellow costal streak and spots running from the antemedial line to the apex. The underside of the hindwing is greyish with a discal spot.