| Southern Large Darter HESPERIINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
Male
(Specimen: courtesy of the
Macleay Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney)
|
| Southern Large Darter HESPERIINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
Male
(Specimen: courtesy of the
Macleay Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney)
These Caterpillars hatch from eggs that are white with pink markings, laid singly on foodplant leaves.
The caterpillars are green with a dark line along the back, and brown head which has a mark like an upside-down 'V'. The caterpillars live in a cylindrical shelter made by rolling a leaf tip, leaving an entrance at the bottom. They feed nocturnally on various rainforest species such as :
The caterpillar leaves its shelter to pupate, typically pupating in a curled leaf on the ground.
The adults are brown, with orange patches. The males have bigger orange patches than the females, and also have a grey line across part of each forewing. The undersides of the forewings are similar to their upper surfaces, but the hindwings are a more uniform pale brown underneath. The butterflies have a wing span of about 3 cms.
This species is rare, and occurs in
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 124-225.
Oswald B. Lower,
Revision of the Australian Hesperiadae,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 35 (1911), pp. 157-158, No. 81.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 25 October 2009, 21 March 2025)