Eulechria callidesma

Eulechria callidesma (Lower, 1894)
(one synonym: Trachypepla glebifera Turner, 1927)
EULECHRIA GROUP
OECOPHORINAE, OECOPHORIDAE, GELECHIOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Eulechria callidesma
(Photo: courtesy of Kristi Ellingsen & Tony Daley, Insects of Tasmania)

The Caterpillars of this species are thought to feed on dead leaves, as do others in this genus Eulechria, although different species in this genus seem each to prefer different host plants. The caterpillar probably lives in a tubular silk lined gallery, incorporating debris and frass, in amongst the dead leaves.

The caterpillar probably pupates in a larger and looser chamber at one end of the gallery.

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

The adult moth has a small white head, and black and brown forewings each with a complex pattern including a vague ragged white bar, and with tufts of pale scales sticking up. The hindwings are plain grey-brown. The wingspan is about 2 cms.

The species has been found in:

New South Wales,

Victoria, and

Tasmania.

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Oecophorine Genera of Australia II: The Chezala, Philobota and Eulechria groups (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae),
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Volume 5,
CSIRO Publishing, 1997, pp. 357, 362.

Oswald B. Lower,
New Australian Heterocera,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 18 (1894), p. 96.