Chaetocneme critomedia (Guerin-Meneville, 1831)
Banded Dusk-flat
 (previously known as Hesperia critomedia)
PYRGINAE,   HESPERIIDAE,   HESPERIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


female
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay)

These Caterpillars are greenish pink with white spots and a dark red middorsal line. The head is brown with a black stripe edged with cream. They grow to a length of about 3 cms. They live in leafy shelters by day. Initially these are constructed from a cut piece of leaf folded over to make a pocket. Later instars join two leaves together with silk, or a piece from one leaf and join it onto another. The Caterpillars feed nocturnally on plants from many families, including:

  • Northern Bollygum ( Blepharocarya involucrigera, ANACARDIACEAE ),
  • Custard Apple ( Annona reticulata, ANNONACEAE ),
  • Green Kamala ( Mallotus polyadenos, EUPHORBIACEAE ),
  • White Bolly Gum ( Neolitsea dealbata, LAURACEAE ),
  • Bamaga Satinash ( Syzygium bamagense, MYRTACEAE ), and
  • Brown Kurrajong ( Commersonia bartramia, STERCULIACEAE ).


    male
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay)

    The adult butterflies are brown with a diagonal orange band across each forewing, and a broad orange edge to each hindwing. The undersides are similar. The wingspan is about 5 cms.


    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay)

    The species is found in as several subspecies in

  • Indonesia.

    The subspecies sphinterifera Fruhstorfer, 1910, occurs in

  • Queensland on Cape York.


    drawing by Guérin-Méneville, listed as Hesperia critomedia    ,
    Voyage autour du monde sur la covette La Coquille,
    Volume 2, Part 2 (1838), Plate "Insectes No.18", fig. 6,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia,
    CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp 67-68.

    Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville,
    Crustacés, Arachnides, et Insectes,
    Voyage autour du monde sur la covette La Coquille,
    Volume 2, Part 2 (1838), p. 282, and also Plate "Insectes No.18", fig. 6.

    G.A. Wood,
    The life history of Chaetocneme critomedia sphintifera (Fruhstorfer) (Lepidoptera:Hesperiidae:Pyrginae),
    Australian Entomological Magazine,
    Volume 11 (1985), p. 6.

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    (updated 14 October 2008, 5 January 2024)