| Southern Large Darter HESPERIINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
Male
(Specimen: courtesy of the
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)
|
| Southern Large Darter HESPERIINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
Male
(Specimen: courtesy of the
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)
These Caterpillars hatch from eggs that are white with pink markings, laid singly on foodplant leaves.
The caterpillars are green with a dark line along the back, and brown head which has a mark like an upside-down 'V'. The caterpillars live in a cylindrical shelter made by rolling a leaf tip, leaving an entrance at the bottom. They feed nocturnally on various rainforest species such as :
The caterpillar leaves its shelter to pupate, typically pupating in a curled leaf on the ground.
The adults are brown, with orange patches. The males have bigger orange patches than the females, and also have a greyl line across part of each forewing. The undersides of the forewings are similar to their upper surfaces, but the hindwings are a more uniform pale brown underneath. The butterflies have a wing span of about 3 cms.
This species is rare, and occurs in
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 124-225.
Oswald B. Lower,
Revision of the Australian Hesperiadae,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 35 (1911), pp. 157-158, No. 81.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 25 October 2009, 5 January 2024)