Hesperilla donnysa

1 Varied Sedge-skipper at Tharwa, ACT

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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.

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Location information

Maps Gibraltar Pines
Places Tharwa, ACT

Sighting information

At least 1 Abundance
RAllen Recorded by
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

Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Queensland

Northern Territory

Western Australia

South Australia

Victoria

Tasmania