![]() | XYLORYCTIDAE, GELECHIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)
The Caterpillar of this species feeds on the bark of various Gum Trees ( MYRTACEAE ), including :
making a gallery which it covers with brown silk and frass.
The adult moths have grey-brown forewings, often with a dark dot near the middle of each one. The hindwings of the female are black fading to pale yellow at the margins. The hindwings of the male can be similar to those of the female, or just plain yellow. The upper side of the abdomen has alternate bands of black and orange. The moths have a wing span of about 5 cms.
The species has been found in
Note that Walker's type specimen came from Brisbane, so that specimens from areas in the Tropics may be misidentified, and actually be Uzucha borealis, as both species show variable colouration. But Walker and Turner distingished their species by colour, so that Uzucha humeralis should also be the darker species.
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 23.6, p. 228.
Ian McMillan,
Uzucha, Xyloryctine Moths of Australia,
Blog, Thursday, July 1, 2010.
Francis Walker,
Tortricites & Tineites,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 29 (1863), p. 826, No. 70.
![]() caterpillar | ![]() butterflies | ![]() Lepidoptera | ![]() moths | ![]() caterpillar |
(written 12 January 2002, updated 8 October 2012, 4 May 2019, 13 September 2020)