Euchaetis inceptella (Walker, 1864)
WINGIA GROUP,   OECOPHORINAE,   OECOPHORIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Euchaetis inceptella
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Harris, Gunbower, Victoria)

This Caterpillar is thought to feed on the foliage of various trees in the family MYRTACEAE, and to live singly in a shelter constructed by joining some leaves of the food plant with silk, retaining frass within the shelter.

The caterpillar pupates within its webbed shelter.

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

The adult moth of this species has pale brown forewings each with a red line along part of the costa, and several vague dark brown speckled diagonal bands. The hindwings are pale brown. The wingspan is about 3 cms.

The species has been found in Australia in

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


    Further reading :

    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. 268-269.

    Francis Walker,
    Tineites,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Part 29 (1864), p. 759, No. 136.


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    (updated 1 November 2012, 16 December 2014, 10 January 2015, 26 July 2019, 22 October 2020)