Mem. Nat. Mus. Vict., 15, 1947 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF CASEMOTH 

 (LEPIDOPTERA, PSYCHIDAE) 



By Charles G. Oke 



National Museum of Victoria 



Plate XV, Figs 1-8 



The family Psychidae is fairly well represented in Australia, 

 some of the species being very common and widely spread, but 

 fourteen of the species are, according to Turner's list 1 , only known 

 from single specimens. Very little is known about the biology 

 of Australian species, but even so, there can be no excuse for 

 Meyrick and Lower in 1907 2 , or Turner in 1945 1 , stating that the 

 females are legless. Westwood in 1845 3 figures several females 

 showing their legs. 



Plutorectis caespitosae sp. nov. 



3 22-24 mm. across wings. Derm of body black, nitid, normally 

 concealed by long dense clothing which is mostly fuscous brown, 

 but on head and prothorax becoming a pale ochreous and very 

 sericeus ; anterior margin of wings blackish, elsewhere the scales 

 on wings cinereus ; cilia cinereus, with a golden tint. 



Eyes small. Antennal pectinations 7; stem dingy ochreous, 

 pectinations fuscous. Forewings with costa straight almost to 

 apex, apex rounded; termen rounded. Hind wings with apex 

 lightly rounded; termen rather strongly rounded. 



? 14 mm. long. Much degraded. Legs appearing much like those 

 of a larva. Head apparently Avithout appendages. 



Habitat. — Victoria : Bogong High Plains in January (Miss L. 

 White). Type Locality: Mt. Hotham (C. Oke); New South 

 Wales, Mt. Kosciusko (Amos Williams in Dec, C. E. Chadwick 

 313-48). Feeding on Poa caespitosa G. Forst. 



Type $ and Allotype 2 in collections of National Museum of 

 Victoria. 



Fairly close to P. eapnaea Turn, but differs in being more 

 robust, with the wings narrower and, especially the hind wings, 

 not so strongly bowed on the termen. The colour is paler, and the 

 cilia is not dark fuscous. The antennal pectinations are about 

 1 -J wider. Also the scales are different : most of the scales on the 



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