In Queensland, adults of the soldier flies Inopus rubriceps (Macq.) and I. flavus (James) emerge between March and June, usually on still warm days. The females mate and oviposit on the day of emergence, the eggs being deposited close to the soil surface under small clods or in cracks. Incubation takes 6–13 days, depending on temperature. Observations on larvae reared on maize seedlings showed that the wide size range in field populations of larvae at all times of the year was due to the differing rates of development of larvae of one generation, to overlapping generations and to a difference in size between the sexes. One-third of the larvae matured to adults at the end of one year, but only a few of the remainder survived to emerge as adults after two years, one-year larvae having 8–9 instars, and two-year larvae having 10–12. Pupation occurred within the last larval skin, and the pupal period lasted three weeks.

Thoracolopha was described by Turner in 1939 for Thoracolopha alychnodes, Thoracolopha plaesiospila and Thoracolopha pissonephra, with the last designated as the type species. In 1996, Edwards referred all three taxa to Proteuxoa Hampson, 1903, thus synonymising Thoracolopha with Proteuxoa. However, the genitalia of Proteuxoa pissonephra are not like those of the Proteuxoa type species Proteuxoa amaurodes (Lower 1902), and the results of a phylogenetic analysis, using maximum likelihood, of sequence data from mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) also indicate that Proteuxoa (sensu Edwards) is more than one genus. As a consequence, the genitalia of 42 of the species referred to Proteuxoa by Edwards were dissected and compared for the first time with those of P. pissonephra and P. amaurodes. Based on bootstrap branch support provided by COI sequence analysis (84%), as well as morphological evidence, Thoracolopha is here removed from synonymy and re‐established as a valid genus with 13 described species. The genitalia of typical Thoracolopha and typical Proteuxoa are illustrated, and Thoracolopha is redescribed from both sexes, so that the misidentified Thoracolopha species in collections can be reliably distinguished from those of Proteuxoa using adult morphology alone.

The tortricid moth genus Epiphyas Turner, 1927, comprises 39 described species and is largely confined to the Australian mainland and Tasmania. Lord Howe Island is the only other place where more than one Epiphyas species is found, these being Epiphyas postvittana (Walker, 1863), a widely polyphagous and widespread horticultural pest commonly known as the ‘light brown apple moth’, and a second species identified by J. D. Bradley as Epiphyas aulacana (Meyrick, 1881). Because Lord Howe Island is on the UNESCO's world heritage register, it is important to distinguish native from exotic insects as a means for uncovering and managing biosecurity threats to the island. To test whether E. aulacana sensu Bradley is indeed conspecific with E. aulacana‐like moths from the Australian mainland and Tasmania, specimens from all three islands were examined, and nucleotide sequence data obtained and compared from the mitochondrial gene region cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and three nuclear gene regions: isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), and the carbomoylphosphate synthetase (CPS) domain of the gene known as CAD. The results suggest that the second species is not E. aulacana but a new species, Epiphyas intrepida sp. nov., which like its larval host plant Cassinia tenuifolia Bentham, 1867, is endemic to the island.