Hesperilla furva Sands & Kerr, 1973
Grey Sedge-skipper
TRAPEZITINAE,   HESPERIIDAE,   HESPERIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(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 ) :

  • Scleria mackaviensis, and
  • Scleria sphacelata.

    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

  • Queensland.


    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.


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    (updated 14 May 2004, 5 January 2024)