![]() | White-fringed Swift (previously known as Pamphila fuliginosa) HESPERIINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: by Chris Muller and G.A. Wood,
courtesy of
Australian Entomological Magazine)
These Caterpillars are green with a dark dorsal stripe. They have a brown head with a black adfrontal 'V' marking. They feed nocturnally on :
By day they hide in a shelter created by folding over the edge of a leaf of their foodplant and joining it with silk.
They pupate in their shelter which often becomes detached and falls to the ground. It is sealed so that it floats if the ground becomes flooded.
The adult butterfly of is brown, with a white fringe along the trailing edge of each hindwing. The males have a pale diagonal ragged mark (sex brand) across each forewing.
The undersides are also brown. The adults have a wingspan of about 4 cms.
The eggs are laid singly on the upper sides of leaves of the foodplant. They are hemispherical and initially white, although later they become dark pink. They have a diameter of about 1.5 mm.
The species is found on
and along the tropical coast of Australia in
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 236-237.
William Henry Miskin,
Descriptions of some new species of Australian Hesperidae,
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland,
Volume 6, Part 5 (1889), pp. 147-148.
C.J. Muller, and G.A. Wood,
The life history of Sabera fuliginosa fuliginosa (Miskin)
(Lepidoptera:Hesperiidae) and additional hostplants for the other
members of the genus in northern Queensland,
Australian Entomological Magazine,
Volume 26, Part 4, pp. 111-114.
![]() caterpillar | ![]() butterflies | ![]() Lepidoptera | ![]() moths | ![]() caterpillar |
(updated 3 October 2010, 5 January 2024)