Taractrocera papyria (White-banded Grass-dart)

Taractrocera papyria papyria
Taractrocera papyria agraulia

Other Common Names

White Grass-dart, Western Grass-dart

Notes

This is a very small species of skipper and it’s easy to overlook them as there are always lots of more obvious butterflies around. In early August 2004 I saw several of these skippers at Mount Annan. I found them by looking for flowers in the grass, as these butterflies are very hard to spot unless they are feeding. It took me a long time to get photos of the white band on the underside of the hind wing, because they rarely sit in a position that shows it. They tend to land and only rest with their wings up over their backs for a brief period, before flattening the hind wings down. As they usually rest so low down, it makes it very hard to photograph the underside of the hind wings.

In September 2004 this species was very common at Mount Annan – in certain areas they were darting around all over the place.

In Oct/Nov 2008 I saw several specimens of ssp agraulia around Perth. They don’t really look much like the east coast version (ssp papyria) at all. The most obvious difference is their lack of the white band. Yes, Western Australia has White-banded Grass-darts that don’t have white bands.

Sightings

Ingleburn Recreation Reserve – May, September, October 2004
Mount Annan Botanic Garden – August, September, October 2004
Wentworth Falls – February 2009
Lesmurdie, WA – November 2016
Bold Park, Perth WA – October 2008

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