Tymbophora peltastis Meyrick, 1890
 XYLORYCTIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


(Photo: Don Herbison-Evans)

This Caterpillar is brown with sparse hairs, with a brown and black speckled head. It lives on its foodplant in a shelter made of leaves and frass joined together with silk. It feeds on the leaves of:

  • Gum Trees ( MYRTACEAE ).


    The adult moth is off-white with a vague brown mark on the rear edge of each forewing. The moth can erect a dark crest on the thorax. The moth has a wingspan of about 2 cms.


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

    The species is found in :

  • 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, fig 23.1, p. 228.

    Ian McMillan,
    Tymbophora, Xyloryctine Moths of Australia,
    Blog, Thursday, July 1, 2010.

    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. 47.

    Edward Meyrick,
    Descriptions of Australian Lepidoptera Part I,
    Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
    Volume 13 (1890), pp. 56-57, No. 52.

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    (written 17 November 2001, updated 7 October 2012, 6 April 2015, 3 December 2020)