| Leather-leaf Spore-Eater STATHMOPODINAE, OECOPHORIDAE, GELECHIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Nick Lambert,
Coffs Harbour, New South Wales)
|
| Leather-leaf Spore-Eater STATHMOPODINAE, OECOPHORIDAE, GELECHIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Nick Lambert,
Coffs Harbour, New South Wales)
The Caterpillars of this species are off-white with a brown head and a yellowish collar. The caterpillars live in silk tunnels on the underside of foodplant leaves, feeding on the spores, of the fern:
The caterpillars pupate in silk cocoons on the underside of a leaf of their foodplant.
The adult moths have off-white forewings, each with three vague pale brown transverse bands, with particularly dark areas at the middle of the costa and at the wingtip. The hindwings are white sometimes with a pale brown suffusion. The head is white, and the thorax is white with two black dots. The wingspan is about 1 cm.
The species has been found in
as well as in Australia in
Further reading :
Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of New Zealand Microlepidoptera,
Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute,
Volume 21 (1889), pp. 170-171, No. 24.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(written 4 February 2020, updated 27 July 2020)