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| | Symmomus
Skipper - Trapezites symmomus
Family
HESPERIIDAE
This page contains information and pictures about Symmomus
Skipper Butterflies in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 25mm
We usually found this large skipper butterfly resting on leaf, seems sleeping, for a long time. It only
flies away when we come
very close, a few centimeters away. Notice in the above picture their is a
leafhopper
sit next to the butterfly.
The butterfly also known as Symmomus Rush-skipper and Splendid Ochre. This is the largest
skipper butterfly that we ever seen. The butterfly
is orange brown in colour. Male and female look the same except female could
be a bit larger.
 
When rest, its wings fold on its back as most
other butterflies, although we had seen this butterfly rest with wings fully
open. The butterfly is brown in colour. There is one small eyespot and a few white dots on the bottoms
of each forewings.
When we taking the above picture, the
butterfly was resting on a dry grass, guarding his territory.
The Caterpillar Foot Plant
Spiny-headed Mat-rush
Lomandra
longifolia, family Xanthorrhoeaceae
Their caterpillars are smooth and pale brown in colour, grow up to 40mm.
They feed on Spiny-headed Mat-rush. Caterpillars
construct shelters at the food plant by joining several leaves together
to form a tight, silk lined structure.
Reference and Link:
1. Trapezites
symmomus - Australian Caterpillars, Don Herbison-Evans & Stella Crossley,
2005.
2. Australian Tropical Butterflies - By Peter Valentine, Clifford Frith (photos),
Dawn Frith (photos),
1991, pp36.
3. Create
More Butterflies - by Frank Jordan and Helen Schwencke,
Earthling Enterprises, 2005, pp42.
4. Wild
Plants of Greater Brisbane - Queensland Museum, 2003, pp103.
5. Butterflies of Australia and New Guinea - Barrett, Charles and A. N. Burns, Melbourne, N. H. Seward, 1951,
pp175.
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