The Metaphorical Meaning of a Moth Named After Trump

Until this week, the genus Neopalpa consisted of a single species of moth, Neopalpa neonata, about which virtually nothing is known beyond its underwhelming appearance. The size of a thumbnail, with dark, mottled wings folded straight back, N. neonata could be mistaken for a dishevelled roach or a tiny, moth-eaten butterfly. The genus belongs to a wider family, Gelechiidae, the twirler moths, so called for their habit of spinning in circles on the surface of leaves. There are more than forty-five hundred species of twirler moth around the world, many of them agricultural pests—the conifer needleminer, the peach twig borer, the red-necked peanutworm moth, the pink-washed aristotelia. Neopalpa neonata occupies a range from California to northern Mexico, but what it does there is unclear, since the moth isn’t well studied and just a few specimens exist in museum collections, including one recovered from a tomato plant.

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