| Narrow-winged Iris-skipper TRAPEZITINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group,
Centre for Biodiversity Genomics,
University of Guelph)
|
| Narrow-winged Iris-skipper TRAPEZITINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group,
Centre for Biodiversity Genomics,
University of Guelph)
This Caterpillar is green with a black line along the back. The caterpillar is often covered in a white waxy powder. It rests in a tent-like shelter which it makes out of leaves of its foodplant joimed with silk. It rests head downward, as the opening of the shelter is at the bottom. It typically emerges to feed near dusk. It feeds on :
The pupa is formed head downward in the shelter.
The adult butterflies have a wingspan of about 3 cms. On top, they are dark brown, with three off-white spots on each forewing. The undersides are similar but paler and patchy. Also there is a submarginal arc of small dark marks under each hindwing.
The eggs are green and laid singly on the underside of a leaf of a foodplant.
This species occurs in
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 186-187.
Stephen Brown, Cliff Meyer and Richard Weir,
Life history notes on the Narrow-winged Iris-skipper
Mesodina hayi E.D. Edwards & A.J. Graham (Lepidoptera:
Hesperiidae: Trapezitinae) from Western Australia,
Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
Metamorphosis Australia,
Issue 106 (December 2023), pp. 6-15.
Ted Edwards & A.J. Graham,
A new species of Mesodina Meyrick (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) from Western Australia,
Australian Entomologist,
Volume 22, Part 3 (1995), p. 84.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 19 March 2004, 5 August 2024)