About 100 eggs are laid by the female moth, which hatch in a few days. The baby Caterpillars bore into the developing shoots of the food plant, and work their way down onto more mature foliage. After a few weeks, they pupate, and after another few weeks, the adult moths emerge.

(Photo: courtesy of John Weiss, Ian Faithfull, and Nicole Freeman
of the Keith Turnbull Research Institute, Frankston, Victoria)

The Caterpillar is reported to feed on:

White Horehound ( Marrubium vulgare ),

both in LAMIACEAE.

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO European Laboratory)

The species has been introduced deliberately into Australia from France in order to control these weeds.

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