Oreixenica correae (Olliff, 1890)
Correa Brown
(one synonym is Xenica fulva Olliff, 1890)
SATYRINAE,   NYMPHALIDAE,   PAPILIONOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Oreixenica correae
(Photo: courtesy of Reiner Richter, Baw Baw, Victoria)

These Caterpillars are green with sparse prominent hairs. Later instars may acquire longitudinal pale lines and a forked tail. Early instar caterpillars feed typically in the afternoons, otherwise hiding at the bottom of the foodplant. Later instars hide by day and feed at night. They feed on various species of Grass (POACEAE) including :

  • Purple-Sheath Tussock Grass ( Poa ensiformis ), and
  • Soft Snow Grass ( Poa hiemata ).

    The pupa is green or brown with darker brown markings, and is suspended head down from a cremaster. It has spiky projections along the sides and back.

    The upper surfaces of the wings of the adult butterflies are brown with yellow patches. The upper sides of each of the forewings each have an eyespot near the wing tip, and the hind wings have a similar one near the tornus. In the females, the forewing eyespots are double.

    Oreixenica correae
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Ken Harris, Mount Buffalo, Victoria)

    Underneath, the wings are much the same but paler, and the hindwings each have an extra eye spot. The butterflies have a wing span of about 3 cms.

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

    The eggs are green or yellow, and spherical, with a diameter of about 1 mm. They are laid singly on leaves of a foodplant.

    The species is found in the mountains of

  • southern New South Wales, and
  • Victoria.


    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 499-500.

    Arthur Sidney Olliff,
    On Rhopalocera from Mt. Kosciusko, New South Wales,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Series 2, Volume 4, Part 3 (1890), pp. 621-622, No. 8


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    (updated 10 April 2011, 11 December 2013, 26 June 2020)