Showing posts with label Butterfly: Mountain Spotted Skipper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Butterfly: Mountain Spotted Skipper. Show all posts

Friday, 7 November 2014

Skipped the mountain

The other day I noticed a butterfly that I hadn't seen before, as it fluttered around a clump of Gahnia sieberana or coarse sword grass. Checking identification it proved to be a female Mountain Spotted Skipper Oreisplanus perornatus, just a bit out of its mountain location. The larvae feed on the Gahnia  and it was fortunate for me, as we only have a couple of clumps of the sword grass. However I didn't have my camera with me so missed the chance to record a first sighting of this species.
Today proved more lucky as I had the camera handy where I was working and caught sight of a butterfly near the sword grass which proved to be a Mountain Spotted Skipper.
Unfortunately it was quite windy and I had difficulty getting focused but did manage to get one photo that shows the correct identification.


A small clump of Gahnia sieberana
The seed head