Choreutis sycopola (Meyrick, 1880)
 (one synonym is Simaethis pyrrhoclista Meyrick, 1922)
CHOREUTINAE,   CHOREUTIDAE,   SESIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Choreutis sycopola
(Photo: courtesy of Ian McMillan, Imbil, Queensland)

The Caterpillars of this species are greyish-yellow with dark marbling. The caterpillars feed on the leaves of Fig Trees (Ficus species, MORACEAE) including

  • Creeping Fig (Ficus pumila ).

    The caterpillars live in a shelter made of leaves webbed together. The caterpillars pupate in a white silk cocoon on the upper surface of a leaf.

    The adults moths have forewings with a complex pattern of brown with grey speckles. The hindwings are orange and brown. The wingspan is about 1.5 cms.

    Choreutis sycopola
    (Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

    The species is found in

  • Queensland, and
  • New South Wales.

    Further reading :

    Edward Meyrick,
    Descriptions of Australian Micro-lepidoptera. IV. Tineina,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Series 1, Volume 5, Number 2 (1880), pp. 211-212.

    Edward Meyrick,
    Exotic Microlepidoptera,
    Volume 2 (1922), p. 486.

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    (written 7 September 2018, updated 29 July 2019, 13 April 2020)