Grey Sedge-skipper TRAPEZITINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
male
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group,
Centre for Biodiversity Genomics,
University of Guelph)
The Caterpillar of this species is green with dark and light lines along the body. It lives in a shelter made from leaves of its foodplant, and feeds on the Sedges ( CYPERACEAE ) :
The caterpillar grows to a length of about 3 cms. It pupates in its shelter.
The adult butterflies are brown with a wingspan of about 3 cms. The males have a few small pale yellow spots and a black line on each forewing. The females have larger pale yellow spots and no black line. Underneath, the sexes are similar: both are fawn coloured with indistict pale spots under each forewing.
This species occurs in
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 162-163.
Donald Peter Andrew Sands & J.F.R. Kerr,
A new species of Hesperilla (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) with a redescription of H. sexguttata (Herrich-Schäffer),
Journal of the Australian Entomological Society,
Volume 12, Part 4 (1973) p. 277.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(updated 14 May 2004, 5 January 2024)