![]() | (one synonym : Anthoecia divitiosa Walker, 1865) HYPERTROPHIDAE, GELECHIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Ian McMillan, Imbil, Queensland)
This Caterpillar is light brown with a white dorsal line forking on the prothorax. The sides are marked by fine brown lines. The caterpillar lives in a tunnel on the underside of a leaf of its food plant. It feeds on the leaves of various :
The tunnel is surrounded by a trellis-like arch composed of silk and frass. At night, the caterpillar emerges from the shelter, and feeds from the edge of the leaf inwards until only its base and the leaf stalk remain. It grows to a length of about 2 cms.
When ready to pupate, the caterpillar attaches itself to a leaf by a cremaster. The pupa projects from the leaf, unprotected by a cocoon. The adult emerges after about two weeks.
The adult moth has fore wings that are brown with a dark brown band in the outer area of each wing bordered by lighter areas either side flecked with silver. The hind wings are orange with a broad black margin. Raised patches of brown and orange scales on the fore wings give the wing surfaces a knobby appearance. There is also a knob on the thorax. The moth has a wingspan of about 2 cms.
It is found over most of Australia, including:
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 236.
Alexey Diakonoff,
Revision of the Hypertrophinae (Lepidoptera, Glyphipterygidae) I,
Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie Wetenschappen,
Volume C57, Part 3 (1954) p. 280.
![]() caterpillar | ![]() butterflies | ![]() Lepidoptera | ![]() moths | ![]() caterpillar |
(updated 18 February 2010, 28 March 2019, 21 October 2020)