The caterpillars bore downwards and upwards into a leaf of their foodplant creating a translucent white mine between the upper and lowers skins of the leaf. The mine is often along the midrib of the leaf, and filled with water. The frass is accumulated along a line at the side of the mine. The caterpillar grows to a length of about 1 cm.

(Photo: courtesy of Lauri Kaila, from Elachistine Moths of Australia)

When mature: the caterpillar exits the mine and forms a pupa in a cocoon composed of a dense silk network, spun at the base of a leaf. The pupa is brown with a narrow dark line along the back, and a vague broader dark line along each side of the back.

(Photo: courtesy of CBG Photography Group, James Duggan, Sandford, Tasmania)

The adult moths have dark brown forewings, each with two vague dark-edged transverse white bands, as well as another along the margin, and a coppery line along the length of each forewing. The hindwings are plain dark brown. The moths have a wingspan of about 8 mms.

(Photo: courtesy of CBG Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The species has been found in

as well as in Australia in

Further reading

Lauri Kaila,
Elachistine Moths of Australia: (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea: Elachistidae),
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Vol. 11,
CSIRO Publishing, 2011, pp. 17, 21, 25, 33, 38-39, 43, 58, 63, 214, 217-221, 245, 271, 287,
including Plates 3.5, 3.6, 19.1, 34.1, 42.2, 43.3; Figs. 62, 63, 123, 124, 336.

Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of Australian Microlepidoptera XVII Elachistidae,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Series 2, Volume 22, Part 2 (1897), p. 333, No. 66.

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(written 14 July 2017, updated 28 June 2022)