Australian Diamondback Moth
S2, Pale
Ellura
Australian Diamondback Moth
S3, Profile
 
                      
Australian Diamondback Moth (Plutella cf australiana)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Butterflies & Moths (Lepidoptera)
Family: Diamondback Moth (:Yponomeutoid Plutellidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Australian Diamondback Moth (Plutella cf australiana)
This Photo:     S3, Darker
Synonym: Plutella xylostella-australiana

Thank you Alan Melville for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
Only discovered as being a separate moth this year (2018).
It is not possible to differentiate them visibly from the introduced Cabbage Moth. However, the introduced moth is a cosmopolitan species, and seems to prefer cooler/wetter environments. As such, we are guessing this is the native one at Ellura, but the introduced one in the Adelaide Hills.
Thanks to Donald Hobern for alerting us to this new species

Unusually on iNat they are now calling this "Complex Plutella xylostella-australiana", it's not a proper taxon name or identifier and should really be left as Plutella genus, but it does a good job of quickly highlighting the situation.

Copyright © 2014-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 24-Sep-2014
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.