''Arignota stercorata'' is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

in the family

Xyloryctidae Xyloryctidae is a family of moths contained within the superfamily Gelechioidea described by Edward Meyrick in 1890. Most genera are found in the Indo-Australian region. While many of these moths are tiny, some members of the family grow to a wing ...

. It was described by

Thomas Pennington Lucas Thomas Pennington Lucas (13 April 1843 – 15 November 1917), also known as T.P. Lucas, was a Scotland, Scottish-born Australian medical practitioner, Natural history, naturalist, author, philosopher and utopianist. Early life Lucas was bor ...

in 1894. It is found in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, where it has been recorded from

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. It is also found in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 28–35 mm. The forewings are white, with a number of pale leaden-coloured spots imitative of birds' droppings. There is an acute spot in the centre and a splash tinted with ferrous in the inner angle of the base. A triangular blotch is found at three-fifths of the costa and there are five round spots, the first near the costa at one-eighths, the second obliquely to the first and posterior, the third before the middle in the centre of the wing, the fourth at three-fourths of the wing, the fifth in a line with the fourth but nearer to the costa. Two sharp dots are arranged diagonally with first and second spots and four dots form a rhomboid figure at three-fifths, the two hinder ones tinted with purplish black. There is also an obscure dot on the hindmargin at five-sixths, and another half-way between this and the apex. There are three rows of fine hindmarginal spots. The hindwings are white. The larvae feed on ''

Elaeocarpus obovatus ''Elaeocarpus obovatus'', commonly known as hard quandong, blueberry ash, whitewood, grey carabeen, freckled oliveberry or gray carrobeen, is a species of flowering plant in the family Elaeocarpaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a ...

''. They bore in the stem, feeding on leaves it cuts off and attaches at the entrance to the tunnel.McMillan, Ian (11 October 2010)
"''Arignota'' Turner, 1898"
''Xyloryctine Moths of Australia''. Retrieved 13 July 2020.

References

Xyloryctidae Moths described in 1894 Moths of New Guinea Moths of Australia {{Xyloryctidae-stub