Opogona glycyphaga

Opogona glycyphaga Meyrick, 1915
Sugarcane Bud Moth
HIEROXESTINAE , TINEIDAE

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

Opogona glycyphaga
(Photo: courtesy of the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, Bundaberg)

This Caterpillar is a pest, particularly of:

Sugar Cane ( Saccharum officinarum, POACEAE ),

Passionfruit ( Passiflora edulis, PASSIFLORACEAE ),

Granadilla ( Passiflora ligualaris, PASSIFLORACEAE ), and

Banana ( Musa acuminata, MUSACEAE ).

The Caterpillar is buff coloured, with a dark brown head, dark spots along the sides, and is sparsely covered in hairs. Normally it lives in a tunnel bored in a shoot or root of the foodplant. It grows to a length of about 1.5 cms.

cocoon and pupa
(Photo: courtesy of the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, Bundaberg)

It pupates in a cocoon in its tunnel.

(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville)

The adult moth has a purple head and thorax, and yellow forewings with purple wingtips. The hindwings are yellow. The moth has a wingspan of about 2 cms.

It occurs in the north of Australia, including

Western Australia, and

Queensland.

Further reading :

J.R. Agnew (ed.),
Australian Sugarcane Pests,
Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, (Indooroopilly) 1997, p. 45.

Gaden S. Robinson & Ebbe S. Nielsen,
Tineid Genera of Australia,
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Volume 2, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 1993.