(formerly known as Ocystola leptospila) CHEZALA GOUP OECOPHORINAE, OECOPHORIDAE, GELECHIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Ian McMillan,
Imbil, Queensland)
These Caterpillars feed on dead leaves of
The caterpillars live in galleries of silk, frass, and soil between two joined leaves in leaf litter. They pupate in a silk coccoon in amongst the litter.
The adult moths of this species have pale yellow head, with dark brown colouring the thorax and the basal half of the costa. The forewings are pale yellow each with variable dark markings. Some have just two brown dots near the middle, and a sometimes broken semi-circular brown arc around, and brown line along, the margin. There is variable dark shading along the forewing hind-margin The hindwings are pale brown fading towards the bases. The wingspan is about 1.5 cms.
The species has been found in:
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Oecophorine Genera of Australia II:
The Chezala, Philobota and Eulechria groups (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae),
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Volume 5,
CSIRO Publishing, 1997, pp. 226-227.
Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of Australian Micro-Lepidoptera. XV. Oecophoridae (continued),
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Series 2, Volume 3 (1889), pp. 1654-1655.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(written 25 October 2014, updated 25 October 2018, 12 January 2021)