forming a shelter by webbing leaves together.

(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The adult moths have pale brown forewings with a dark area along the costa, and two or three dark spots. The hindwings are a uniform grey. The wingspan is about 1.5 cm.

underside
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The species has been found in

and also in Australia in

female, drawing by Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsingham, listed as Gelechia palpigera,
African Micro-Lepidoptera, Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, 1891, p. 94, Plate 4, fig. 31,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

Further reading :

Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsingham,
African Micro-Lepidoptera,
Transactions of the Entomological Society of London,
1891, p. 94, and also Plate 4, fig. 31.

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(written 26 March 2014, updated 7 October 2025)