Cosmopterix heliactis Meyrick, 1897
 COSMOPTERIGINAE,   COSMOPTERIGIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Cosmopterix heliactis
(Photo: courtesy of Graham McDonald, Mudgeeraba, Queensland)

The Caterpillars of this species are leaf miners in grasses ( POACEAE ) and sedges ( CYPERACEAE ).

The adult moth is dark brown with some narrow white streaks, and a bright orange band across each forewing. The orange band is itself edged with black-edged white lines. The outer black edge to the outer white edge to the orange band on each forewing has tuft of long black hairs. The hindwings are plain brown. The hind margin of each wing is edged with hairs that are longer than the width of the wing. The moths have a wingspan of about 1 cm.

Cosmopterix heliactis
(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 :

    Graham J. McDonald,
    Moths - The Weird and the Wonderful,
    Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
    Metamorphosis Australia,
    Issue 68 (March 2013), pp. 13-16.

    Edward Meyrick,
    Descriptions of Australian Microlepidoptera. XVII. Elachistidae,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Volume 22 (1897), p. 340, No. 82.

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    (written 3 February 2014, updated 6 August 2024)