Hesperilla donnysa

Hesperilla donnysa, Hewitson, 1868
Donnysa Skipper
TRAPEZITINAE ,nbsp; HESPERIIDAE

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

(updated 3 July 2007)

Hesperilla donnysa
(Photo: courtesy of P. and M. Coupar, Museum Victoria)

This Caterpillar is green, with a dark dorsal line. The head is brown with a dark wedge shaped mark and two dark stripes. The Caterpillar feeds on various species of Sword Grass ( CYPERACEAE ), depending on locality, including :

Red Fruit Sawsedge ( Gahnia sieberiana ).

The Caterpillar constructs a shelter using silk, rolling or joining leaves of the foodplant. By day it lives in its shelter, enmerging at night to feed.

It pupates in its shelter.

male
(Photo: courtesy of Museum Victoria)

The adult butterfly is dark brown with a yellow patch and and some white spots on each fore wing, and a yellow patch on each hind wing. The males have a patch of grey on each forewing.

(Photo: courtesy of Martin Purvis, Ingleburn, NSW))

Underneath, the wings are fawn coloured, with white and yellow patches under the forewings, and an arc of white dots edged in black under each hindwing. The wingspan of the males is about 3 cms. That of the females is about 3.5 cms.

female
(Photo: courtesy of Museum Victoria)

The eggs are white and laid singly under a leaf of a foodplant.

The species is found in a number of pockets around the southern half of Australia, with a number of races adapted to various climates from the seashore to the mountains, including :

galena around Geraldton, Western Australia,

albina in south-west Western Australia,

aurantia in Tasmania and local islands,

as well as in South Australia:

delos,

diluta, and

donnysa,

and in Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland:

icaria,

patmos, and

samos.