Timoconia flammeata

Timoconia flammeata (Butler, 1882)
Bright Shield-skipper
(previously known as Telesto flammeata)
TRAPEZITINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Timoconia flammeata
(Photo: courtesy of R.Field, Museums Victoria)

The Caterpillar of this species is brown with a darker brown line along the back. The head is black with brown markings and is indented. The Caterpillar grows to a length of about 1.5 cms. It feeds on grasses such as

Brown Top Bent ( Agrostis capillaris ),

Slender Tussock Grass ( Poa tenera ), and

Rice Grass ( Tetrarrhena ),

all of POACEAE.

The Caterpillar resides by day in a shelter of grass stems held together loosely with silk, feeding nocturnally. It pupates in its shelter.

female
(Photo: courtesy of Museums Victoria)

The upper surface of the adult butterfly is dark brown, with white patches on the fore wings. The male also has a large black patch on each fore wing, and the female has a pale yellow patch on each hind wing. Underneath, the wings are a paler brown, the fore wings having pale yellow patches, and the hind wings having a subterminal arc of dark dots. The wing span is about 3 cms.

male
(Photo: courtesy of Museums Victoria)

Males of this species, like those of several other species of butterflies, seem particularly fond of aggregating at hill tops.

female laying eggs
(Photo: courtesy of Nick Monaghan)

The eggs are white, developing coloured patches as hatching approaches. The eggs are shaped like partly squashed spheres with ribs. The eggs have a diameter of about 0.7 mm. They are laid singly on discarded gum leaves or branches or other debris on the ground near tussocks of a foodplant.

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Yarra Ranges, Victoria)

The species may be found particularly in the hill country along the south-east coast of Australia including: