Bedellia somnulentella (Zeller, 1847)
Sweet Potato Leaf Miner
 (one synonym: Bedellia ipomoeae Bradley, 1953)
BEDELLIINAE,   LYONETIIDAE,   YPONOMEUTOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Bedellia somnulentella
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

These Caterpillars are dark grey with a dark brown bulge each side of each segment. The head is black. They feed by mining the leaves of various members of the Bindweed and Sweet Potato family (CONVOLVULACEAE) , eg:

  • Sweet Potato ( Ipomoea batatas ), and
  • Field Bindweed ( Convolvulus arvensis ).

    Bedellia somnulentella
    (Photo: courtesy of the Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

    The adult moths are fawn with a hairy head and thorax, and fringes of hairs on the trailing edge of each forewing, and around the whole of each hindwing. The antennae are nearly as long as the forewings. The moths have a wingspan of about 1 cm.

    The eggs are laid singly on the upper surface of a leaf of a foodplant.

    Bedellia somnulentella
    (Drawing: courtesy of the Australian National Insect Collection)

    The species is found all over the world, for example:

  • Great Britain,
  • Japan,
  • New Zealand,
  • Russia,
  • South Africa,
  • U.S.A.,

    as well as in Australia including

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory,
  • Victoria,
  • Tasmania,
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia.

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 21.12, p. 215.

    Philipp C. Zeller,
    Bemerkungen über die auf einer Reise nach Italien und Sicilien beobachteten Schmetterlingsarten,
    Isis von Oken,,
    Jena, Volume 40, Heft 12 (1847), pp. 894-895, No. 432.

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    (updated 15 August 2011, 12 September 2019, 5 March 2021)