Sabera dobboe (Plötz, 1885)
Yellow-streaked Swift
(previously known as Pamphila dobboe)
HESPERIINAE,   HESPERIIDAE,   HESPERIOIDEA
  
Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Sabera dobboe
(Photo: courtesy of Martin Purvis, Cairns, Queensland)

This Caterpillar is pale green with dark lines along the back, and a dark brown head. It lives in a tubular shelter made in a curled leaf of its food plant. It feeds on various members of the family ASPARAGACEAE :

  • Cabbage Tree ( Cordyline australis ),
  • Palm Lily (Cordyline cannifolia ),
  • Ti Plant ( Cordyline fruticosa ), and
  • Slender Palm Lily ( Cordyline stricta ).

    Sabera dobboe
    (Specimen: courtesy of The Australian Museum)

    The Caterpillar pupates within its tubular shelter. The pupa has a length of about 2 cms.

    Sabera dobboe
    (Specimen: courtesy of The Australian Museum)

    The upper surface of the adult butterfly is brown, with orange patches.

    Sabera dobboe
    underside
    (Specimen: courtesy of The Australian Museum)

    The undersides are brown, with a white patch on each forewing. The wing span is about 3 cms.

    The eggs are laid on the underside of leaves of the food plant. They are white with vertical ribs.

    The species is also found as various subspecies in

  • New Guinea, and neighbouring islands,

    and as the subspecies autoleon Miskin, 1889, along the tropical coast north-east coast of Australia in

  • Queensland.


    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia,
    CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 235-236.

    Carl Plötz,
    Neue Hesperiides Insichen Archipels und Ost-africa's aus Collection des Herrn H. Ribbe,
    Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift,
    Volume 29, Parts 2 (1885), pp. 227-228, No. 16.


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    (updated 6 July 2009, 29 September 2013, 19 August 2020)