Hesperilla sexguttata

Hesperilla sexguttata Herrich-Schaffer, 1869
Riverine Sedge-skipper
TRAPEZITINAE, HESPERIIDAE, HESPERIOIDEA

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

male
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

These Caterpillars are pale green, tending to pink at each end. The head is brown. They have been found feeding on various Sedges (CYPERACEAE) including

Rotten Sedge ( Cyperus decompositus ),

Giant Sedge ( Cyperus javanicus ), and

Tiny Head Sedge ( Cyperus microcephalus ).

The caterpillars hide by day in a shelter made by curling foodplant leaves and holding them with silk. The Caterpillars emerge to feed nocturnally.

They pupate in their shelter.

female
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The adult butterflies of this species are dark brown with a row of six close pale yellow spots on each forewing. The males also have a black line running alongside the spots. The wings have a narrow white border. The butterflies have a wingspan of about 2.5 cms.

This species is rare outside the tropics, and occurs as two subspecies :

sela Waterhouse 1932,

in the north of Western Australia, and

Northern Territory, and

Cape York and Torres Strait,

and

sexguttata along the coast of the southern half of Queensland. .

Further reading :

Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 161-162.

Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer,
Neue Schmetterlinge aus dem "Museum Godeffroy" in Hamburg,
Stettin Entomologische Zeitung,
Volume 30, Parts 1-3 (1869), p. 80, No. 64. and also Plate 3, fig. 16.

caterpillar

Australian
Australian Butterflies

butterflies

Australian
home

Lepidoptera

Australian
Australian Moths

moths

caterpillar

(updated 26 March 2006, 5 January 2024)