Heteroteucha kershawi

Heteroteucha kershawi (Lower, 1893)
James Kershaw's Concealer Moth
(one synonym : Oecophora divisella Walker, 1864)
WINGIA GROUP, OECOPHORINAE, OECOPHORIDAE, GELECHIOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Heteroteucha kershawi
(Photo: courtesy of Ian McMillan, Imbil, Queensland)

This species was named after the collector of the type specimen James Andrew Kershaw.

The Caterpillars live together in a shelter made of leaves of its foodplant joined together with silk. The caterpillars have been found feeding on the leaves of:

Yellow Gum ( Eucalyptus leucoxylon, MYRTACEAE ), and

Box Mistletoe ( Amyema miquelli, LORANTHACEAE ).

Pupation occurs within their web of leaves.

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

The adult moths of this species have yellow forewings each with brown bands across the base and the margin. The hindwings are plain brown. The wingspan is about 2 cms.

The species has been found in :

Queensland,

New South Wales,

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. 117, 119, 121.

Oswald B. Lower,
New Australian Heterocera,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 17 (1893), p. 293.