| Sod Webworm (one synonym : Botys pharaxalis Walker, 1859) SPILOMELINAE, CRAMBIDAE, PYRALOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Rod Elder, Queensland Beef Industry Institute)
|
| Sod Webworm (one synonym : Botys pharaxalis Walker, 1859) SPILOMELINAE, CRAMBIDAE, PYRALOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Rod Elder, Queensland Beef Industry Institute)
This Caterpillar is greenish brown, with a pale brown head with dark markings, and with pairs of dark warts on each segment along the back.
The caterpillars feed on a wide variety of Grass species ( POACEAE ), and can cause severe damage to pastures and lawns. Each caterpillar lives in a tube made of leaves of its food plant, lined with silk, at the soil surface. When disturbed, it can wriggle violently backward, and if possible drop on a silken thread. It grows to length of about 2 cms.
The adult has fawn wings with rows of indistinct dark marks. It has a wingspan of about 2 cms.
The moth has a characteristic posture when at rest. It sits with its wings flat, and half open, with the hindwings half covered by the forewings, and with the abdomen curved up.
The moth is found over much the world, including
as well as in Australia in
It is often the commonest moth found in Sydney. It has been the object of study by Andrew Ward at the University of Queensland.
The eggs are white and approximately spherical, with a diameter of about 1 mm. They are laid singly on randomly available surfaces.
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 33.18, pp. 66, 356.
Francis Walker,
Pyralides,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 18 (1859), p. 686, No. 242.
Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths,
CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 133.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 4 November 2010, 5 October 2023)