What is "ghost moth"

Ghost \Ghost\ (g[=o]st), n. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. g[=a]st breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g[=e]st spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]

1. The spirit; the soul of man. [Obs.]

   Then gives her grieved ghost thus to lament.
   --Spenser.

2. The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death; an apparition; a specter.

   The mighty ghosts of our great Harrys rose.
   --Shak.

   I thought that I had died in sleep, And was a blessed ghost.
   --Coleridge.

3. Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea.

   Each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
   --Poe.

4. A false image formed in a telescope by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.

   Ghost moth (Zo["o]l.), a large European moth ( Hepialus humuli); so called from the white color of the male, and the peculiar hovering flight; -- called also great swift.

   Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit; the Paraclete; the Comforter; (Theol.) the third person in the Trinity.

   To give up the ghost or To yield up the ghost, to die; to expire.

   And he gave up the ghost full softly.
   --Chaucer.

   Jacob . . . yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
   --Gen. xlix. 33.

n. (taxlink Hepialus humuli species noshow=1), a white moth of the family ''(taxlink Hepialidae family noshow=1)''.

The ghost moth (Hepialus humuli), also known as the ghost swift, is a moth of the family Hepialidae. It is common throughout Europe except for the far south-east. This species is often considered the only species in the genus Hepialus and a number of previously included species is now reclassified into other genera. However, other authorities retain a number of species in the Hepialus genus.

The male has a wingspan of about 44 mm and both forewings and hindwings are pure white (although in H. h. thulensis, found in Shetland and the Faroe Islands, there are buff-coloured individuals). The female is larger (wingspan about 48 mm) and has yellowish-buff forewings with darker linear markings and brown hindwings. The adults fly from June to August and are attracted to light. The species overwinters as a larva.

The ghost moth gets its name from the display flight of the male, which hovers, sometimes slowly rising and falling, over open ground to attract females. In a suitable location several males may display together in a lek.

The larva is whitish and maggot-like and feeds underground on the roots of a variety of wild and cultivated plants (see list below). The species can be an economically significant pest in forest nurseries.

The term ghost moth is sometimes used as a general term for all Hepialids.