Toxidia melania (Waterhouse, 1903)
Dark Grass-skipper
 (previously known as Telesto melania)
TRAPEZITINAE,   HESPERIIDAE,   HESPERIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Sabera fuliginosa
(Photo: courtesy of Bart Hacobian, Millaa Millaa, Queensland)

The Caterpillar of this species is a purplish-fawn colour with yellow lines, and a brown head. It lives in a shelter by day, constructed by rolling a leaf into a tube or joining several leaves together. At dusk and near dawn, it feeds on various

  • Grasses (POACEAE),


    Female
    (Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney)

    The adults on top are dark brown. On each forewing, the females have two white spots, and the males have a white edged black sex brand.


    Male
    (Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney)

    Underneath, the forewings each have a small white spot near the centre, an the hindwings have several arcs of pale spots.


    Female, underside
    (Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney)

    The butterflies have a wing span of about 3 cms.


    Male, underside
    (Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney)

    They occur in the tropical rainforests of t

  • Queensland.

    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, p 135.

    Gustavus Athol Waterhouse,
    Descriptions and notes of Australian Hesperidae, chiefly Victorian,
    Victorian Naturalist,
    Volume 20, Part 4 (1903), p. 54.

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    (written 4 November 2001, updated 22 March 2025)