1 Varied Sedge-skipper at Tharwa, ACT
Identification history
| Hesperilla donnysa | 6 Jan 2025 | owenh | ||
| Taractrocera papyria | 5 Jan 2025 | CarbonAI | ||
| Hesperilla donnysa | 5 Jan 2025 | RAllen |
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User's notes
larvae shelters and chewed leaves on food plant
2 comments
owenh
wrote:
6 Jan 2025
I'm not able to verify this as H. donnysa Richard. Not being familiar with the larval shelters of this species I can only quote Michael Braby (ref to Fisher 1978) 'The newly hatched larva makes a shelter by rolling the edge of a young central leaf. In late instars, a larger tubular shelter is constructed by joining several leaves with silk. One of the leaves used for the shelter often forms a conspicuous loop as it grows. The top of the shelter has an opening through which the larva exits at night to feed...' (Butterflies of Australia 2000). Perhaps you can try and contact Suzi for her thoughts.
RAllen
wrote:
6 Jan 2025
Confession first. I kept walking past and Suzi called me back to see!! She showed me the tubular shelters and how the subsequent growth of leaves resulted in the conspicuous loop. 1st photo shows some adjacent chewing while 2nd shows a couple of doubled back leaves forming loop.
There is doubt of course as my photos not especially clear and we did not peel open shelter to reveal larvae or pupae. Nice to have an alternative breeding site though.
There is doubt of course as my photos not especially clear and we did not peel open shelter to reveal larvae or pupae. Nice to have an alternative breeding site though.
Location information
- Maps Gibraltar Pines
- Places Tharwa, ACT
Sighting information
- At least 1 Abundance
- RAllen Recorded by
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Collections
RAllen Skippers (Hesperiidae) Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera) Insects Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr
Additional information
- gahnia subaequiglumis Associated plant
- Larvae or nymphs Breeding behaviour
- Less than 5mm Animal size
Species information
- Hesperilla donnysa Scientific name
- Varied Sedge-skipper Common name
- Sensitive
- Rare or uncommon native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Machine learning
- External link More information
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
