| Broom Twig Miner (one synonym : Tinea punctaurella) LYONETIIDAE, YPONOMEUTOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
magnified
(Photo: courtesy of
Ingrid Altmann,
Dieberg, Germany )
|
| Broom Twig Miner (one synonym : Tinea punctaurella) LYONETIIDAE, YPONOMEUTOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
magnified
(Photo: courtesy of
Ingrid Altmann,
Dieberg, Germany )
The Caterpillar of this species is pale brown with few obvious hairs. The head is black, and the tail has two dark spots. The caterpillar tapers slightly toward the tail.
The caterpillar feeds on various plants in FABACEAE including:
The caterpllar pupates in a sparse silk cocoon spun between the stems and leaves of its foodplant.
The adult moth has white forewings, each with some black-edged brown marks near the margin, and a black, brown, and white eye-spot at the tornus. The hindwings are white, with long white fringes along the costa. Each of the four wings has long white fringes along the hind-margin. The moth has a wingspan of about 0.8 cms.
The moth species is occurs naturally in:
The species was introduced deliberately into
and accidentally into
and then 1993 onwards into
in order to control pest oubreaks of Scotch Broom.
The moth was released in
Further reading:
Jim Cullen, Mic Julien, Rachel McFadyen (eds),
Biological Control of Weeds in Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, 2012, p. 206.
Jacob Hübner,
Tineae II, Pyralidiformes B etc,,
Sammlung Europäischer Schmetterlinge,
Volume 8 (1813), Plate 49, fig. 335.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  imagoes |  caterpillar |
(updated 13 July 2004, 24 July 2022)