Agriophara cinerosa Rosenstock, 1885
 STENOMATINAE,   OECOPHORIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley & Peter Marriott

Agriophara cinerosa
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

These Caterpillars feed on the green foliage of various trees in the family MYRTACEAE. The caterpillars makes silk shelters covered in frass between joined leaves.

The caterpillars pupate in their shelter, which by then is composed of dead leaves. The pupae can make a rasping sound by bending, so rubbing pupal skin plates together. The hollow cavity between the dead leaves can seem to amplify this sound.

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

The adult moths are grey with short dark streaks on each forewing. The hindwings are pale grey. The wingspan is about 2 cms. When disturbed, the moths often run rather than fly.

The species has been found in:

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory,
  • Victoria,
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 231.

    Rudolph Rosenstock,
    On Australian Lepidoptera,
    The Annals and Magazine of Natural History; Zoology, Botany, and Geology,
    Series 5, Volume 16, pp. 439-440.

    Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
    A Guide to Australian Moths,
    CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 66.

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    (updated 19 April 2011, 24 October 2018, 27 October 2020)