It lives and pupates in a shelter formed by joining several grass stems together with silk in the middle of a tussock. In due course, it pupates in this same shelter.

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

The adult butterfly is dark brown with several white spots on each forewing. Underneath, the forewings have a similar pattern, but the hindwings are have arcs of white spots. There is a chequered termen to both surfaces each wing, which is broader in the females.

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

The males have a sex brand on the upper forewing surfaces consisting of a short diagonal black line. The wing span is about 2 cms.

> egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Barrington Tops, New South Wales)

The eggs are shaped like tall domes, with 17 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 may be found as five subspecies in Australia, in the mountains of :

namely:

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp 119-120.

Carl Plötz,
Die Hesperiinen-Gattung Telesto Bsd., und ihre Arten,
Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung,
Volume 45, Sections 10–12 (1884), p. 379, No. 10.

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(updated 1 May 2008, 5 January 2024)