Hemibela callista (Meyrick, 1885) (previously known as Ocystola callista) WINGIA GROUP,   OECOPHORINAE,   OECOPHORIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA

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

(Photo: courtesy of Donald Hobern, Blackheath, New South Wales)

The Caterpillars of this species live in a hollowed out twig which they carry around. The caterpillars probably feed on various species of Gum Trees (MYRTACEAE) and have been found feeding on Eucalyptus hemiphloia.

The caterpillars are thought to pupate in their twig case, anchoring it to a branch or convenient object.

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The adult moths have brown forewings each with an orange fringe of hairs along the margin, and a white line along the costa. The hindwings are yellow. The head and thorax are brown. The wingspan is about 1.6 cms.

The species has been found in :

Western Australia.

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Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 22.5, p. 224.

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. 323-325, 327, 328, Figs. 606, 610.

Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of Australian Micro-lepidoptera. XII. Oecophoridae,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Volume 9, Number 4 (1885), pp. 1059, 1067-1068, No. 372.

Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths,
CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 66.

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(updated 25 October 2010, 23 September 2024)