The caterpillars bore into the stems. They pupate in their bore-holes.

(Photo: courtesy of Katunchik, Primorsko, Bulgaria)

The adult moths are off-white. The abdomen has a large tuft on the tail. The moths have a wingspan of about 3 cms.

drawing by Ioannis Antonii Scopoli, Ordo III, Lepidoptera, Phalaena,
Entomologia Carniolica Exhibens Insecta Carnioliae Indigena, 1763, Fig. 494,
image courtesy of North Carolina State University Libraries.

The species is found across Europe, Africa, and Asia, including

and also occurs in Australia in

drawing by Jacob Hübner, listed as Tinea phantasmatella,
Tineae II, Pyralidiformes B, Sammlung Europäischer Schmetterlinge,
Volume 8 (1796), Plate 8, fig. 56,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

Further reading :

Jacob Hübner,
Tineae II, Pyralidiformes B,
Sammlung Europäischer Schmetterlinge,
Volume 8 (1796), p. 23, and also Plate 8, fig. 56.

Angoon Lewvanich,
A Revision of the Old World Species of Scirophaga (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae),
Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History),
Volume 42 (1982), p. 192.

Ioannis Antonii Scopoli,
Ordo III, Lepidoptera, Phalaena,
Entomologia Carniolica Exhibens Insecta Carnioliae Indigena,
1763, p. 198, No. 494, and also Fig. 494.

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(written 13 December 2015, updated 6 March 2023)