Euchaetis iozona

Euchaetis iozona (Lower, 1893)
(one synonym: Heliocausta episarca Lower, 1903)
WINGIA GROUP, OECOPHORINAE, OECOPHORIDAE, GELECHIOIDEA

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

Euchaetis iozona
(Photo: courtesy of Donald Hobern, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory)

This Caterpillar is thought to feed on the foliage of various trees in the family MYRTACEAE, and to live singly in a shelter constructed by joining some leaves of the food plant with silk, retaining frass within the shelter.

The caterpillar pupates within its webbed shelter.

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

The adult moth of this species has grey to pinkish-brown forewings, each with a variable irregular dark brown band across the middle. The hindwings are off-white. The wingspan is about 2 cms.

The species is found in much of Australia, including:

Queensland,

New South Wales,

Australian Capital Territory,

Victoria,

Tasmania,

South Australia, and

Western Australia.

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Oecophorine Genera of Australia I: The Wingia Group (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae),
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Volume 3,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 1994, p. 270.

Oswald B. Lower,
New Australian Lepidoptera,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 17, Number 1 (1893), p. 174.