''Xylorycta austera'' 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 1898. 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 ...

. 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 24–35 mm. The forewings are cream colour, with chocolate-fuscous longitudinal bifurcating bands, the first along the costa, the second from the centre of the base of the wing, bifurcating at one-sixth, the inner branch to the anal angle of the hindmargin, the other toward the costa. This again bifurcates beyond the middle of the wing, the one branch to the costa before and along the apex, the other to the hindmargin before the middle. The third has the form of a border band from near the base along the inner margin, thinning out to the anal angle. There is a discoidal spot at two-thirds, touching the band to the hindmargin. There is also a row of fine lines beyond and below this to the hindmargin.McMillan, Ian (30 June 2010)
"''Xylorycta austera ''(T.P. Lucas, 1898)"
''Xyloryctine Moths of Australia''. Retrieved 14 July 2020.

References

Xylorycta Moths described in 1898 {{Xyloryctidae-stub