(formely known as Bathrotoma constrictana) EUCOSMINI, OLETHREUTINAE, TORTRICIDAE, TORTRICOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Mark Ridgway,
Ferntree Gully, Victoria)
These Caterpillars live in cases composed of one, two or three stiff chambers made from hollowed-out flower buds or seed capsules, each like an inflated cube. The caterpillars feed on the flowers of
both of MYRTACEAE.
The case can grow to a total length of about 1.2 cms. The caterpillar pupates in its case.
The adult moths have pale brown heads, and off-white forewings each with grey speckles which coalesce in places to form several vague dark transverse bands. The hindwings are plain grey. The grey fades to brown in dead specimens. The wingspan is about 1.2 cms.
The species occurs in Australia in:
Further Reading
Marianne Horak and Furumi Komai,
Olethreutine Moths of Australia: (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae),
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera series. Vol. 10,
CSIRO Publishing, 2006, pp. ii, 24, 41-42, 49, 342, 347, 349-351, 353, 355, 369.
Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of Australian Micro-lepidoptera XII Oecophoridae,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Series 1, Volume 6, Number 3 (1881), pp. 675-676.
A. Jefferis Turner,
Contributions to our knowledge of the Australian Tortricidae (Lepidoptera) Part II,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 70 (1946), p. 200.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(written 3 February 2017, updated 2 December 2018, 13 November 2020, 2 February 2021)