Cryptoblabes hemigypsa Turner, 1913
Macadamia Flower Caterpillar
 (sometimes misidentified as Homoeosoma vagella Zeller, 1848)
PHYCITINAE,   PYRALIDAE,   PYRALOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


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

The caterpillars of this species are a pest, attacking various species in PROTEACEAE, including :

  • Macadamia Nuts ( Macadamia integrifolia ) and
  • Spider Flowers ( Grevillea ).

    Young caterpillars feed inside the flower buds. As the caterpillars mature, they feed on the outside of buds and flowers.

    They pupate in a silk cocoon among the leaf litter.


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

    The adult moths are a patchy greyish-brown. The moths have a wingspan of about 1 cm.

    The species has been found in

  • Queensland, and
  • New South Wales.

    Further Reading:

    Marianne Horak,
    Identity of Two Phycitine Pests on Macadamia (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Phycitinae),
    Australian Journal of Entomology,
    Volume 33, Issue 3 (August 1994), pp. 235–244.

    A. Jefferis Turner,
    Studies in Australian Lepidoptera, Pyralidae.,
    Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland,
    Volume 24 (1913), p. 128.

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    (written 15 October 2001, updated 21 January 2023)