Lobesia physophora (Lower, 1901)
 (previously known as Lomaschiza physophora)
OLETHREUTINI,   OLETHREUTINAE,   TORTRICIDAE,   TORTRICOIDEA
  
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Lobesia physophora
(Photo: courtesy of Valry Ryland, Magnetic Island, Queensland)

These Caterpillars are stout and pale green with a dark brown head and collar.

Lobesia physophora
larva and frass and silk pad inside gall
(Photo: courtesy of Valry Ryland, Magnetic Island, Queensland)

The caterpillar has been found feeding on:

  • fruit of Lantana ( Lantana camara, VERBENACEAE ),
  • flowers of Lychees ( Litchi chinensis, SAPINDACEAE ),
  • galls on flowers of Lolly Bush ( Clerodendrum floribundum, LAMIACEAE ).

    Lobesia physophora
    empty pupal case inside gall
    (Photo: courtesy of Valry Ryland, Magnetic Island, Queensland)

    The gall on the Lolly Bush was an expanded flower-bud, filled with silk and frass.

    Lobesia physophora
    pupa
    (Photo: courtesy of Valry Ryland, Magnetic Island, Queensland)

    The caterpillar pupated in its gall.

    Lobesia physophora
    (Photo: courtesy of Valry Ryland, Magnetic Island, Queensland)

    The adult moth has forewings that are pale brown, with irregular grey and brown markings on each forewing. The hindwings are plain pale brown. There is a pale brown tuft over the back of the first abdominal segment.

    Lobesia physophora
    (Photo: courtesy of Valry Ryland, Magnetic Island, Queensland)

    The wingspan is about 1 cm.

    Lobesia physophora
    (Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

    The species occurs in

  • New Guinea,

    as well as in Australia in

  • Western Australia,
  • Northern Territory,
  • Queensland, and
  • northern New South Wales.

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

    The underside is plain beige.

    Lobesia physophora
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Valry Ryland, Magnetic Island, Queensland)

    Further reading:

    Alexey Diakonoff,
    The South Asiatic Olethreutini: (Lepidoptera Tortricidae),
    1973, Brill (Leiden). p. 376.

    Marianne Horak and Furumi Komai,
    Olethreutine Moths of Australia: (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae),
    Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Series, Volume 10,
    CSIRO Publishing, 2006.

    Oswald B. Lower,
    New Australian Tortricina,
    Descriptons of new genera and species of Australian Lepidoptera,
    Volume 25 (1901), p. 69.

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    (updated 15 September 2009, 4 June 2018, 29 September 2020)