Arignota stercorata (T.P. Lucas, 1894)
 (previously known as Xylorycta stercorata)
XYLORYCTIDAE,   GELECHIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Arignota stercorata
(Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

This caterpillar bores into a stem of its foodplant, hiding in the tunnel so created. It attaches leaves to the tunnel entrance, on which it then feeds. Its foodplant is

  • Hard Quandong ( Elaeocarpus obovatus, ELAEOCARPACEAE ).

    Arignota stercorata
    (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 number of grey spots. The hindwings are plain white. The head and abdomen are white, but the thorax is dark brown. The wingspan is about 3 cms.

    The species occurs in

  • New Guinea,

    as well as in Australia in:

  • Queensland, and
  • New South Wales.

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 24.2, fig. 23.13, p. 229.

    Thomas P. Lucas,
    Descriptions of new Australian Lepidoptera, with additional localities for known species,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Series 2, Volume 8 (1894), p. 164.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 216.

    Ian McMillan,
    Arignota,
    Xyloryctine Moths of Australia,
    Blog, Sunday, November 17, 2013.

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    (updated 29 April 2011, 1 January 2019)