Suniana lascivia

Suniana lascivia (Rosenstock, 1885)
Dark Grass-dart
(previously known as Pamphila lascivia)
HESPERIINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

This Caterpillar is pale green with dark narrow stripes. The head is brown with dark markings. The caterpillar lives by day in a vertical shelter formed by joining foodplanrt leaves with silk. At night it emerges to feed, being found on various grasses (POACEAE) including :

Blady Grass ( Imperata cylindrica ),

Large Bluegrass ( Ischaemum australe ), and

Guinea Grass ( Panicum maximum ).

It grows to a length of about 2.5 cms. It pupates in its shelter.

male
(Photo: courtesy of Museums Victoria)

The upper side of the adult butterfly is dark brown with yellow bands across each wing. The males have a black patch in middle of each forewing. Underneath, the wings are fawn with a pale patch under each wing, and large dark patch under each forewing. The wing span is about 2 cms.

female
(Photo: courtesy of Museums Victoria)

The eggs are cream with red markings, and are laid singly on leaves of a foodplant.

male, underside
(Photo: courtesy of Museums Victoria)

The species is found in

Timor,

New Guinea,

and in mainland Australia as several races including

lasus Waterhouse, 1937, in the north of Western Australia and western Northern Territory,

larrakia Couchman, 1951, in Western Australia, and Northern Territory,

neocles (Mabille, 1891) in north Queensland, and

lascivia in southern Queensland, and New South Wales, and Victoria.

female, underside
(Photo: courtesy of Museums Victoria)

The eggs are cream, smooth, and hemispherical, with a diameter of about 1 mm.

egg, highly magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Walker, Merimbula, New South Wales)

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 209-210.

Rudolph Rosenstock,
Notes on Australian Lepidoptera, with descriptions of new species,
Annals and Magazine of Natural History,
Volume 5, Part 16 (1885), pp. 378-379, and also Plate 11, fig. 1.

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(updated 25 July 2004, 5 January 2024)