![]() | White Veined Skipper (previously known as Anisynta albovenata) TRAPEZITINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Robert Fisher, Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc.)
The Caterpillars of this species are pale green with dark lines along the body. They have a mottled brown head and a brown tail with long white hairs. The Caterpillars feed on various species of Speargrass (POACEAE) :
The caterpillars build a shelter with the entrance on top at the base of a foodplant. They rest, head upward, in their shelter by day, emerging to feed at night. The caterpillars grow to a length of about 2 cms. They pupate in a similar shelter, head upward.
The upper side of the adult butterfly is dark brown with a series of pale yellow spots on each forewing.
Underneath, the wings are similar but paler, but they also show pronounced white veins, and the hindwings show a number of pale spots between the veins. The wing span is about 3 cms.
The eggs are shaped like tall domes, with 40 or so vague ribs. The eggs are off-white, developing coloured markings as hatching approaches, The eggs have a diameter of about 1 mm, and a height of about 1 mm. They are laid singly on a leaf or stem of a foodplant.
The species is found in various small localities distributed over
It occurs as three subspecies:
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 174-175.
Gustavus Athol Waterhouse,
Australian Hesperiidae. IX. Description of a new species,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Volume 65 (1940), p. 568.
![]() caterpillar | ![]() butterflies | ![]() Lepidoptera | ![]() moths | ![]() caterpillar |
(updated 4 August 2001, 21 September 2013, 28 May 2020, 13 September 2021)