Tanyzancla marionella (Newman, 1856) (one synonym : Oecophora gloriosella Walker, 1864) WINGIA GROUP,   OECOPHORINAE,   OECOPHORIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA

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

(Photo: courtesy of Ned Fish, Parrakie, South Australia)

The adult moth has white forewings with an open lattice of thick black lines. The head and prothorax are pale yellow, and the rest of the thorax is black with pale yellow each side. The hindwings are pale yellow with a brown border. The moth has long upward curving labial palps. The moth has a wingspan of about 2 cms.

(Specimen: courtesy of Macleay Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney)

The species is found across most of the southern half of Australia, including

Western Australia.

drawing by Edward Newman and G.H. Ford, listed as Oecophora marionella,
Characters of a few Australian Lepidoptera, Collected by Mr. Thomas R. Oxley,
Transactions of the Entomological Society of London,
New Series, Volume 3 (1856), Plate XVIII, fig. 7,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

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Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,   Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 4.15, 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. 108-112, 120.

Edward Newman,
Characters of a few Australian Lepidoptera, Collected by Mr. Thomas R. Oxley,,
Transactions of the Entomological Society of London,
New Series, Volume 3 (1856), p. 294, and also Plate 18, fig. 7.

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(updated 1 November 2012, 11 November 2025)