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 CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The adult moth has white forewings with three broad transverse black bands edged with orange. The hindwings are yellow, sometimes with a dark brown margin. The moth has a wingspan of about 2 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Laura Levens, Upper Beaconsfield, Victoria)

The species is found in the south-eastern quarter of mainland Australia, including:

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 4.17, p. 224.

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. 145, 148.

Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of Australian Micro-Lepidotera XV Oecophoridae (continued),
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Series 2, Volume III (1888), p. 1597.

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(updated 1 November 2012, 11 November 2020)