Telicota brachydesma Lower, 1908
Small Darter
HESPERIINAE,   HESPERIIDAE,   HESPERIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Telicota brachydesma
(Photo: by P.S. Valentine and S.J. Johnson, courtesy of The Australian Entomologist)

These caterpillars are a jungle species, and have been found feeding on :

  • Banks' Grass ( Leptaspis banksii, POACEAE ).

    Telicota brachydesma
    female
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay)

    The butterflies are brown with a broad orange stripe across each wing.

    Telicota brachydesma
    male
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay)

    The males also have a black stripe on the upper suface of each forewing alongside the orange one. The butterflies have a wingspan of about 2.5 cms.

    Telicota brachydesma
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay)

    The species occurs along the coast of

  • north Queensland.

    Telicota brachydesma
    (Picture: courtesy of CSIRO Australian National Insect Collection)


    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, p. 229.

    Oswald B. Lower,
    Revision of the Australian Hesperiadae,
    Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
    Volume 32 (1908), pp. 312-314.

    P.S. Valentine and S.J. Johnson,
    The life history of Telicota brachydesma Lower (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae),
    Australian Entomologist,
    Volume 27, Number 4 (2000), pp. 103-108.


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    (updated 8 February 2009, 28 October 2022)