(erroneously: Exometaeca nycteris)
Western Flat
PYRGINAE, HESPERIIDAE
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(updated 5 January 2006)
(Specimen: courtesy of the
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(updated 5 January 2006)
(Specimen: courtesy of the
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)
These Caterpillars are initially yellow, later becoming green, with a darker line along the back. The head is initially black becoming brown then green, and developing a pair of short horns. The Caterpillar feeds on :
both of TREMANDRACEAE.
The Caterpillars often build a silk shelter under a curled leaf on the foodplant or on the ground nearby, in which they rest when not feeding.
The pupa is green with a length of about 1.5 cms.
This adult moth is brown with several small white spots on the forewings. Its wingspan is about 3 cms. It is a rather boring butterfly, but it has an unusual natural posture: the wings are extended downwards below the thorax so that the undersides are touching.
The eggs are pale brown, ribbed, and dome-shaped. Their diameter is about 0.8 mm. They are laid on the young shoots of a foodplant.
The species occurs only in Western Australia.
Further reading :
Andrew F. Atkins, Andrew A.E. Williams, and Matthew R. Williams,
Exometoeca nycteris Meyrick
(Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae: Pyrginae) :
life history and morphological studies,
The Australian Entomologist, Volume 29, Part 1
(April 2002), pp 1-10.
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