| Western Flat PYRGINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Specimen: courtesy of the
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)
|
| Western Flat PYRGINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Specimen: courtesy of the
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)
These Caterpillars are initially yellow, later becoming green, with a darker line along the back. The head is initially black becoming brown then green, and developing a pair of short horns. The caterpillar feeds on :
both of ELAEOCARPACEAE.
The caterpillars often build a silk shelter under a curled leaf on the foodplant or on the ground nearby, in which they rest when not feeding.
The pupa is green with a length of about 1.5 cms.
This adult moth is brown with several small white spots on the forewings. Its wingspan is about 3 cms. It is a rather boring butterfly, but it has an unusual natural posture: the wings are extended downwards below the thorax so that the undersides are touching. The wingspan is about 3 cms.
The eggs are pale brown, ribbed, and dome-shaped. Their diameter is about 0.8 mm. They are laid on the young shoots of a foodplant.
The species occurs only in
Further reading :
Andrew F. Atkins, Andrew A.E. Williams, and Matthew R. Williams,
Exometoeca nycteris Meyrick (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Pyrginae) :
life history and morphological studies,
The Australian Entomologist,
Volume 29, Part 1 (April 2002), pp 1-10.
Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of new Australian Rhopalocera,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Series 2, Volume 2, Part 4 (1888), p. 833.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 15 December 2009, 22 September 2013, 26 May 2020)