Acrocercops chionosema Turner, 1940
Macadamia Leaf Miner
 GRACILLARIINAE,   GRACILLARIIDAE,   GRACILLARIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


(Photo: courtesy of Dianne Clarke, Maleny, Queensland)

The Caterpillars of this species are white with a brown head and thorax. The caterpillars are a pest on :

  • Macadamia Nuts ( Macadamia integrifolia, PROTEACEAE ),

    eating the flesh between the upper and lower skins of the leaves.


    leaf mines of Acrocercops chionosema caterpillars
    (Photo: courtesy of Dianne Clarke, Maleny, Queensland)

    They are also found on:

  • Queensland Nut ( Macadamia tetraphylla, PROTEACEAE ), and
  • Firewheel Tree ( Stenocarpus sinuatus, PROTEACEAE ).

    When it is mature, the caterpillar leaves its leaf-mine to form a cocoon nearby.


    (Photo: courtesy of Dianne Clarke, Maleny, Queensland)

    The adult moths have brown forewings with three black-edged white bars across each one. The head and thorax are white separated by a brown and black collar The hindwings are very narrow and have an extensive plume of hairs along the hind margin. The wingspan is about 7 mms.


    (Photo: courtesy of Dianne Clarke, Maleny, Queensland)

    The species is found in

  • Queensland, and
  • New South Wales.


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

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 20.11, p. 199.

    A. Jefferis Turner,
    A revision of the Australian Gracilariidae (Lepidoptera),
    Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
    Volume 64 (1940), p. 59, No. 61.

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    (updated 3 November 2004, 4 January 2025)