Euchaetis parthenopa Meyrick, 1883 (one synonym is Heliocausta euselma Meyrick, 1883) WINGIA GROUP,   OECOPHORINAE,   OECOPHORIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA

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

(Photo: courtesy of Elaine McDonald, Ida Bay, Tasmania)

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 blotchy brown forewings, each with dark markings including a broad band across the middle. The hindwings are pale yellow, darkeing toward the wingtips. The wingspan is about 2.5 cms.

The species may be found in

Tasmania.

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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, 1994, pp. 24, 267-268, 270.

Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of Australian Micro-Lepidoptera, VIII Oecophoridae (continued),
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Volume 7, Part 4 (1883), p. 467, 481-482. No. 46.

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(written 2 December 2020)