Tk: Soouth Australian Naturalist. 
7 
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NOTES ON THE iJFE-HlSTORY OF THE MOTH, 
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^ CACOECIA POSTVITTANA, Walk, (rortricidae.) 
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IK By NORMAN B. TINDALE, South Australian Museum, 
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Last August Mr. L. Everett, of Waikerie, on the River Mur- 
ray, sent down an orange with a green caterpillar burrowing in the 
pithy layer under the skin. It pupated on the Uth, and emerged 
tj on September 7th. I’he adult proved to be a female specimen of 
,f the common moth, Cacoecia postvittanUj sometimes known as the 
■ “Light-brown Apple Moth.'" A few observations on the life-his- 
tory are made in the following lines. 
I 
C. postvittana is a native insect which has become in recent 
years a pest of the apple and the pear. It is less commonly found 
on the orange, in rose buds, and in various other cultivated flowers 
and fruits. It should not be confused with the codlin moth. In 
its native state, it has been recorded on various plants, for example 
on the flowers, fruits, or leaves of Boronia, Persoonia, Grevillea, 
and a swamp-growing species of Polygonum. Being an insect of 
varied tastes, it has had no difficulty in transferring its attentions 
to the introduced plants. Sometimes it is an internal feeder, bur- 
rowing into the heart of a fruit, at other times it gathers a few 
leaves together in a web, and feeds therein. When it burrows 
into a fruit it usually lines the cavity made with silk. The cater- 
pillar when adult is about 17 mm. (|th of an inch) in length, and 
about 3 mm. wide at the middle, being more slender in front and 
behind. The head is yelloMsh-green in colour and the body pale 
green, with a wide median and narrower lateral longitudinal 
stripes of a darker green running the full length of the body. It is 
everywhere sparsely covered with slender hairs. 
When feeding on' the orange, the larva confines itself to the 
white pithy portions and the skin, making several more or less 
open excavations which are then partially covered over with a 
Silken covering (see inset figure). 
