Butterfly of the Month - November 2024
The Eastern Dusk Flat (Chaetocneme beata) is also known as Common Red-eye. It can be found in locations along Australia’s eastern coast, thrives in rainforest setting, moister gullies and moister open forests and has adapted to densely vegetated suburban gardens.
It’s a lovely butterfly belonging to the Hesperiidae, the second largest of our butterfly families. Its wingspan ranges from 47mm for the male to 52mm for the female making it one of the substantially sized members of the family. It’s wing colours are light brown with an orange tinge on the male’s upper side while darker on the female’s. A band of almost merging pale yellow patches runs across the forewings and one to two tiny spots appear on the hindwings. The female is similar, but tends to be darker as shown in our photo collage where she also has a dark red tinge of her wing scales. The butterfly’s underside for both genders is again darker in base colours but is suffused with a light tint of purple on the wings. Let’s not forget, this adult butterfly has red eyes like its sibling, the Ornate dusk-flat (Chaetocneme denitza).
Single eggs are laid on the upper side of a host plant's leaf. The emerged early larva cuts a little piece of the same leaf and folds it over to create a shelter for itself. This shelter grows with each instar stage, and the late instars can be seen sewing two leaves together to create a protective home where the larva can rest during the day as it feeds at night. The shelter is also used for pupation.
Adults also rest during the day under the leaf with the wings held flat (thus the common name). They tend to appear at dusk, exhibit a rapid flight pattern. and move usually near vegetated areas.
The female Eastern dusk-flat has a substantial range of host plants to choose from when it comes to laying her eggs including the exotic Camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphorum). Otherwise it thrives on the Bolly Gums (Litsea spp and Neolitsea spp), on Bolwarra (Eupomatia laurina), Broad-leaf Cherry (Exocarpus latifolius), Silver Croton (Croton insularis), Pigeonberry Ash (Cryptocarya erythroxylon), Pink Euodia (Melicope elleryana) and others.
Images: CM - Cliff Meyer; RM - Robert (Bob) Miller; TB - Todd Burrows
