Hemibela oxyptera (Lower, 1894)
 (one synonym : Coesyra iotypa Turner, 1940)
WINGIA GROUP,   OECOPHORINAE,   OECOPHORIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Hemibela oxyptera
(Photo: courtesy of Ian McMillan, Imbil, Queensland)

The Caterpillars of this species live in a hollowed out twig which they carry around. The caterpillars have been reported to feed on

  • various species of Gum Trees ( Eucalyptus species, MYRTACEAE ), and
  • Cockies Tongue ( Templetonia retusa, FABACEAE ).

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

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

    These adult moths have brown forewings each with an orange fringe of hairs along the margin. The wingspan is about 2 cms.

    The species has been found in :

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Victoria, and
  • South Australia.

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 79.

    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. 6, 8, 625, 618.

    Oswald B. Lower,
    New Australian Heterocera,
    Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
    Volume 18 (1894), p. 101.

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    (updated 25 October 2010, 10 January 2015, 27 July 2019, 4 November 2020)