''Plutella australiana'' is a moth of the family Plutellidae. It is found in eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The length of the forewings 5.4–6.9 mm for males and 5.6–6.9 mm for females. In external appearance ''P. australiana'' is indistinguishable from '' Plutella xylostella'', a global pest of

cruciferous Cruciferous vegetables are vegetables of the family Brassicaceae (also called Cruciferae) with many genera, species, and cultivars being raised for food production such as cauliflower, cabbage, kale, garden cress, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels s ...

plants. Both species exhibit significant, overlapping variation in forewing pattern. Most specimens of both species have the pale, scalloped band along the hind/dorsal margin typically used to recognize ''P. xylostella''. That band varies from strongly marked to nearly indistinct (the latter particularly so in females) in both species. Differences in genitalia morphology has been noted by Landry and Herbert.Plutella australiana (Lepidoptera, Plutellidae), an overlooked diamondback moth revealed by DNA barcodes
/ref> Further evidence supports the separation of the two species, sequencing of a ~500 bp amplicon of the mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase I gene showed 8.6% sequence divergence. ''P. xylostella'' is thought to feed on a wide variety of

plants in Australia, including native and introduced species. However, Australian records are in question because of the past oversight of ''P. australiana''. As a result, host plant preference of ''P. australiana'' may not be identical to ''P. xylostella'', however Australian ''P. xylostella'' is thought to have the same host range as samples collected from elsewhere in the world.

Etymology

This species name reflects the current restriction of the species to Australia.

References

Moths described in 2013 Plutellidae {{Yponomeutoidea-stub