Agriophara gravis Meyrick, 1890
STENOMATINAE,   OECOPHORIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Agriophara gravis
(Photo: courtesy of Donald Hobern, Aranda, Australian Capital Territory)

These Caterpillars feed on the green foliage of various trees in the family MYRTACEAE. The caterpillar makes silk shelter covered in frass between joind leaves.

It pupates in its shelter, which by then is composed of dead leaves. The pupa 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 gravis
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The adult moths have grey forewings, each with a broad dark streak along half the wing. The hindwings are pale grey. The wingspan is about 2 cms. When disturbed, they often run rather than fly.

The species has been found in eastern Australia, including:

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory,
  • Victoria, and
  • Tasmania.


    Further reading :

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

    Edward Meyrick,
    Descriptions of Australian Lepidoptera, Part 1,
    Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
    Volume 13 (1890), p. 77.


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    (updated 20 April 2009, 10 January 2015, 23 November 2020)