Herimosa albovenata

Herimosa albovenata (Waterhouse, 1940)
White-veined Sand-skipper
(previously known as Anisynta albovenata)
TRAPEZITINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Herimosa albovenata
(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) :

Rough Speargrass ( Austrostipa scabra ),

Fibrous Speargrass ( Austrostipa semibarbata ),

Delicate Speargrass ( Austrostipa falcata ), and

Elegant Speargrass ( Austrostipa eremophila ),

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.

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

The upper side of the adult butterfly is dark brown with a series of pale yellow spots on each forewing.

underside
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

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.

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Murray Bridge, South Australia)

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

inland New South Wales,

South Australia, and

Western Australia.

It occurs as three subspecies:

albovenata,

fuscata Parsons, 1965, and

weemala Couchman, 1954.