The caterpillar is green with a yellow head and prothorax, and has sparse stiff hairs.

drawing by Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, listed as Nymphula depunctalis,
Indian Insect Life: a Manual of the Insects of the Plains, 1909, Plate XLIX, fig. 5,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by NCSU Libraries.

The caterpillar lives in a case made from a rolled-up rice leaf.

drawing by Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, listed as Nymphula depunctalis,
Indian Insect Life: a Manual of the Insects of the Plains, 1909, Plate XLIX, fig. 3,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by NCSU Libraries.

The caterpillar pupates in its case.

(Specimen: courtesy of The Australian Museum)

The adult moths have semi-transparent wings, with faint brown zig-zag lines across them. Each fore wing has two black comma-shaped marks, one double and one single. The moths have a wingspan of about 2 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

The species has been found around the world in the southern tropics, including:

and in Australia in:

Further reading :

Achille Guenée,
Deltoïdes et Pyralites,
in Boisduval & Guenée:
Histoire Naturelle des Insectes; Spécies Général des Lépidoptères,
Volume 9, Part 8 (1854), p. 276, No. 269.

Peter Hendry,
The Night of the Crambidae,
Butterfly and Other Invertebrates Club Newslettter,
Issue 49 (June 2008), pp. 26-29.

Harold Maxwell-Lefroy,
Indian insect life : a manual of the insects of the plains (tropical India),
Pusa Agricultural Research Institute
1909, p. 135, and Plate XLIX.

Philipp C. Zeller,
Lepidoptera Microptera quae J.A. Wahlberg,
Kungl. Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar,
1852, pp 26-27, No. 1.

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(updated 5 February 2010, 6 July 2026)