Wingia aurata (Walker, 1864)
Golden Leaf Moth
 (previously known as Palparia aurata)
WINGIA GROUP,   OECOPHORINAE,   OECOPHORIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Wingia aurata
(Photo: Don Herbison-Evans, Concord, New South Wales)

This Caterpillar could be taken for a snail. It lives in a tough spiral cocoon embodying leaves of its food plant. The caterpillar has a brown head and a stout creamy body. It feeds on:

  • Gum Trees ( Eucalyptus, MYRTACEAE ).

    Wingia aurata
    (Photo: Don Herbison-Evans, Concord, New South Wales)

    It pupates in its shelter, having grown to a length of about 2 cms.

    Wingia aurata
    (Photo: Don Herbison-Evans, Concord, New South Wales)

    The adult moth is orange with a dark line across and a dark patch in the middle of each forewing. The hindwings are orange, fading to white at the bases.

    Wingia aurata
    (Photo: courtesy of YellowButton Jerrabomberra Wetlands, Australian Capital Territory)

    The forewings are unusual as they taper to a point, and then recurve back. The moth's natural posture is unique, as the twisted wingtips diverge, and look like a fishtail, disguising from predators its otherwise natural form from looking like a moth. The moth has a wing span of about 2 cms.

    Wingia aurata
    (Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

    The species has been found in:

  • Northern Territory,
  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory,
  • Victoria,
  • Tasmania,
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia.

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,  
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, pls. 4.10, 23.13, 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. 13, 242, 244, 245.

    Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
    Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
    Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), p. 51.

    Francis Walker,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Part 29, British Museum, 1864, p. 774.

    Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,  
    A Guide to Australian Moths,
    CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 60.

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    (updated 18 September 2011, 19 January 2025)