Agriophara nodigera Turner, 1900 STENOMATINAE,   OECOPHORIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans, (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley

(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.

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

The adult moths have grey speckled forewings, each with variable broad diagonal dark streaks across 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:

Australian Capital Territory.

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Further reading :

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

A. Jefferis Turner,
New Micro-Lepidoptera, mostly from Queensland,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 24, Part 1 (1900), p. 11.

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(updated 20 April 2009, 10 January 2015, 9 November 2020, 1 February 2021)