Hesperilla donnysa (Varied Sedge-skipper)

Hesperilla donnysa donnysa

Hesperilla donnysa albina

Hesperilla donnysa aurantia

Other Common Names

Donnysa Skipper

Notes

I saw a couple of these butterflies on a hillside at Newport, around an area covered with sedges. They didn’t settle much so I wasn’t having any luck getting photos, until a female landed to lay a few eggs which allowed me to get a couple of shots.

In November 2008 I saw a couple of males hilltopping on Mount Marlay at Stanthorpe, northern NSW. They flew very rapidly, and were very busily chasing anything that flew near them, but fortunately they occasionally landed for long enough for me to get photos. A couple of days later I saw males and a female in a swampy area of the Budderoo National Park in NSW. The female was MUCH larger than the males; they in turn were a lot more colourful than those I’d seen at Stanthorpe, although I unfortunately didn’t manage to get any pics of them.

In January 2019 I saw several males and one female of the subspecies aurantia on the slopes of Mount Wellington in Tasmania, especially in the area around The Springs. This helped soften the blow of me having been unable to get shots of Nesoxenica leprea earlier during the day.

In November 2025 I finally got to see one of the Western Australian subspecies, namely albina. I had no luck finding galena to the north of Perth, but I saw a good number of them at Rockingham in an area that had enough of the Gahnia foodplant to support several million Hesperillas. The following day I saw another one about an hour further down the coast at Lake Preston.

Sightings

Newport – April 2005
Mount Marlay, Stanthorpe – November 2008
Budderoo National Park – November 2008
Blackheath – November 2008, November 2009, December 2009
Clarence – December 2016
Mount Wellington, TAS – January 2019
Rockingham, WA – November 2025
Lake Preston, WA – November 2025

Links