Heteronympha merope

Heteronympha merope (Fabricius, 1775)
Common Brown
(one synonym : Satyrus archemor Godart, [1824])
SATYRINAE, NYMPHALIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA

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

Heteronympha merope
(Photo: courtesy of Merlin Crossley, Melbourne, Victoria)

Merope was the name of several women in Ancient Greek Mythology. Also, "meropia" is a term meaning "partially sighted".

Early instars of this Caterpillar are bright green, but the final instar can be either green, grey or pale brown in colour. They have either brown or black markings. The latter occur as dashes that form a broken mid-dorsal line, and as two rows of spots on either side. The head is brown, with a white line on each side of the rear dorsal surface of the head capsule which becomes brown as it extends over the face. The tail is forked. The whole surface of the body is covered with short hairs.

(Photo: courtesy of David Akers, Won Wron, Victoria)

The caterpillars hide by day at the base of their foodplant. They emerge at night, feeding on various species of grass (POACEAE), including :

False Brome ( Brachypodium distachyon ),

Couch ( Cynodon dactylon ),

Panic Veldt Grass ( Ehrharta erecta ),

Coast Tussock Grass ( Poa poiformis ),

Snow Grass ( Microlaena stipoides ), and

Kangaroo Grass ( Themeda triandra ).

The caterpillars grow to a length of about 4 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Merlin Crossley, Melbourne, Victoria)

Pupae were formed in captivity after ten weeks. The pupa is grey-brown with dark brown markings. It is formed on the surface of the soil, and has a length of about 2 cms. The adults emerge after a pupal duration of about four weeks in Melbourne. Males are the first to appear in the spring. Females outnumber males as summer advances.

Female

The adults, like those of many NYMPHALIDAE, have only 4 legs. The adult female is predominently orange on the upper wing surfaces. The outer halves of the forewings and the margins of the hindwings are dark brown. A blue-centred ocellus and three yellow patches are enclosed within the black half of each forewing. There is a dark dash about half-way along each forewing costa. An ocellus decorates each hindwing, near the tornus.

Female

Underneath, the forewing is as above except for a grey patch at the apex. The hindwings underneath are a blotchy grey-brown with faint zig-zag markings. The female has a wingspan of about 7 cms.

Male
(Photo: courtesy of Bruce Anstee, Riverstone, New South Wales)

The adult male has a wingspan of about 6 cms. The wing upper surfaces are orange except for brown-black markings, and blue centred ocelli, one near the apex of each forewing, and one near the tornus of each hindwing.

Male
(Photo: courtesy of Merlin Crossley, Melbourne, Victoria)

Underneath, the male has pale orange forewings, with a brown patch at the apex. The hindwings underneath are brown, and marked by zig-zag dark lines and three ocelli. The males spend their time gently fluttering above the ground and searching through the undergrowth for females, which emerge at the same time but are far more secretive.

mating pair, female on the left
(Photo: courtesy of Bruce Anstee, Riverstone, New South Wales)

The adults are difficult to notice on leaf litter when their wings are closed.

The eggs are roughly spherical with a diameter of about 1 mm. They are cream and usually laid singly on a leaf of a foodplant.

The Common Brown occurs in the southern half of Australia, and a number or races have been proposed to cover the various colorings observed, including :

duboulayi (Butler, 1867) in south of Western Australia,

salazar (Fruhstorfer, 1911) in Tasmania, and

merope in

southern Queensland,

New South Wales,

Australian Capital Territory,

Victoria, and

South Australia.