Light Brown Apple Moth

Epiphyas postvittana

Description:

About 18mm long this moth was resting under light fittings in a public barbecue area.

Habitat:

In a local nature reserve.

Notes:

This introduced species seems to be a serious pest. In Australia it has learned to eat MIMOSACEAE, MYRTACEAE, PITTOSPORACEAE, PROTEACEAE, RUTACEAE, LAXMANIACEAE. That's almost everything. :-( Highly variable appearance and sexually dimorphic.
family: TORTRICIDAE
subfamily: TORTRICINAE
tribe: Archipini
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:b...

1 Species ID Suggestions

catgrin 9 years ago

Light Brown Apple Moth

Epiphyas postvittana Lightbrown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) - Information on Lightbrown Apple Moth

3 Comments

catgrin 9 years ago

I was surprised as well - but with such a large range it's not surprising. No one has separated them into different subspecies (probably to keep the insect recognized as a pest under one name).

Mark Ridgway 9 years ago

Thanks catgrin. Looks a possibility! I didn't know they were so variable and it looks nothing like the last one I found. Back to it later.

catgrin 9 years ago

Providing this link as well - shows great variety in patterning - including color as dark as shown on your example (Male, photographed at Market Warsop September 2014) and wing side edge markings (Female, photographed at Market Warsop September 2014).

http://www.eakringbirds.com/mothimagesli...