Hypocysta euphemia Westwood, 1851
Rock Ringlet
SATYRINAE,   NYMPHALIDAE,   PAPILIONOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Hypocysta euphemia
(Photo: courtesy of Wesley Jenkinson)

These Caterpillars are initially green with a black head. Later instars are brown with indistinct longitudinal lines. They have a brown head that has a pair of small horns, and there is another pair of horns on the last abdominal segment. The caterpillars grow to a length of about 2 cms. They feed on various species of

  • Grass (POACEAE).

    Hypocysta euphemia
    (Photo: courtesy of Wesley Jenkinson)

    The pupa is brown and spiky, and suspended by a cremaster.

    Hypocysta euphemia
    (Photo: courtesy of Martin Purvis, Sydney, New South Wales)

    The wings of the adult butterflies are basically brown, with a complex tracery of darker lines Each wing has two eyespots : one large and one small. Underneath, the wings are similar, but the two eyespots on each wing are nearly equal in size. The butterflies have a wingspan of about 4 cms.

    Hypocysta euphemia
    egg, magnified
    (Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Singleton, New South Wales)

    The eggs are pale yellow and spherical, and covered in a microscopic embossed pattern of about 30 rings of about 60 shallow hexagons. The eggs arelaid singly on the underside of a leaf of a foodplant, and have a diameter of about 1 mm.

    Hypocysta euphemia
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Martin Purvis, Sydney, New South Wales)

    The species is found in

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales, and
  • Victoria.


    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 485-486.

    Wesley Jenkinson,
    Life history notes on the Rock Ringlet, Hypocysta euphemia Westwood, 1851 Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae,
    Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
    Metamorphosis Australia,
    Issue 69 (June 2013), pp. 14-16.

    John O. Westwood,
    Satyridae,
    Genera of diurnal Lepidoptera,
    Volume 2 (1851), p. 398, No. 28, and also Plate 67, fig. 3.


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    (updated 13 June 2009, 13 March 2015, 2 June 2020, 24 September 2021)