The young caterpillar erects a tall narrow silk shelter covered in frass on top of a leaf. Later it cuts the leaf, and rolls part of it over to make a tubular shelter.

The caterpillar pupates in its shelter.

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

The adult moths are small, reaching only a span of about 1 cm. They have striking forewings with a pattern of a white band and blotches on a orange-brown background. The hindwings are plain brown, and each hindwing has a broad hairy fringe. The wingspan is about 2.5 cms.

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

The species has been found in:

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 4.20, p. 223.

Ian F.B. Common,
Oecophorine Genera of Australia I: The Wingia Group (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae),
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Volume 3,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 1994, pp. 143, 144-148.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 182.

Francis Walker,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 29 (1864), pp. 697-698.

Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths,
CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 70.

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(updated 26 October 2010, 17 March 2015)