Garrha leucerythra (Meyrick, 1883) (formerly known as Hoplitica leucerythra) WINGIA GROUP,   OECOPHORINAE,   OECOPHORIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA

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

(Photo: courtesy of Ken Harris, Cape Liptrap, Victoria)

The Caterpillars of this species have been found living on the ground feeding on dead leaves of various species of MYRTACEAE. The caterpillars live and eventually pupate in an oval case constructed from two pieces of dead leaf joined with silk.

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

The adult moth has brown forewings each often with a few vague dark spots, and a reddish tinge around the edges. The hindwings are off-white darkening toward the margins. Unlike other Garrha species, the antennae have barely perceptible banding. The wingspan is about 2 cms.

The species has been found in Australia in :

Western Australia.

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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, pp. 298, 300.

Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), p. 48.

Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of Australian Micro-lepidoptera VIII: Oecophoridae,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Series 1, Volume 7, Part 4 (1883), p. 494, 501-502 No. 63.

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(written 22 January 2017, updated 27 July 2019, 26 January 2021)