note length of antennae
(Photo: copyright of Brett and Marie Smith at Ellura Sanctuary, South Australia)

The adult moths have forewings that are dark metallic purple, each with a yellow spot near the base, and a central transverse band of gold or green speckles. The hindwings are off-white shading to pale brown at the margins. The head is covered in black hairs. The moths have a wingspan of about 1 cm. The forewing colour fades to brown in dead specimens. Their antennae are nearly twice as long as the wings.

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, listed as Nemophora selasphora)

The species has been found in

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, listed as Nemophora topazias)

This name is sometimes synonomised with Nemophora sparsella.

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 16.15, p. 167.

Mikhail Vasilievich Kozlov,
Taxonomic revision of Australian long-horn moths of the genus Nemophora (Lepidoptera: Adelidae),
Zootaxa,
Volume 4097, Part 1 (2016) pp.84-100.

Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of Australian Micro-Lepidoptera: XVI: Tineidae,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Series 2, Volume 7, Part 4 (1892), pp. 483-485, No. 3.

Edward Newman,
Characters of a few Australian Lepidoptera, Collected by Mr. Thomas R. Oxley,
Transactions of the Entomological Society of London,
New Series, Volume III, Number 8 (1856), p. 290.

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(written 19 June 2016, updated 13 February 2024)