It lives in a silk tube on a leaf amongst the prey.

It pupates in its silk shelter.

(Picture: courtesy of CSIRO Entomology)

The adult moth has pale forewings with a number of bold black markings. The hindwings are white. The moth has a wingspan of about 2 cms. It has a peculiar resting posture, with the back legs stuck up in the air.

The species was originally found in the eastern half of Australia, including

and has been introduced into

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 22.13, p. 226.

Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), p. 54.

Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of Australian Micro-Lepidoptera. XVII. Elachistidae,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Volume 22, Part 2 (1897), p. 321.

Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths,
CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 65.

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(updated 31 January 2013, 11 December 2017)