Common Banded Awl
COELIADINAE, HESPERIIDAE
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(updated 19 March 2004)
(Picture: courtesy of
CSIRO Entomology)
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(updated 19 March 2004)
(Picture: courtesy of
CSIRO Entomology)
These Caterpillars are brown with short sparse hairs, although the colour can vary to pinkish or greenish. They have a dark dorsal line, and yellow dorsolateral and lateral lines. The head is dark brown. The young Caterpillars feed on young soft leaves, but later instars consume the harder older leaves of their foodplant :
both of FABACEAE. The Caterpillars live in a shelter made from a folded leaf joined with silk. They feed both by day and at night.
They pupate in their shelter.
The adult butterflies of this species are basically brown. The males have a black line across part of each forewing, and the females have two transparent spots on each forewing, Both sexes have a white band across the underside of each hindwing ending in a fuzzy dark spot at the tornus. Both sexes have a wingspan of about 4 cms.
The species occurs in south-east Asia, from India to Vanuatu, including Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Arnhem Land, and along the Queensland coast in Australia.
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby, Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp 81-82.
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