Antipodia dactyliota (Western Sand-skipper)

Other Common Names

Western Atralba

Notes

I saw this butterfly in 3 different spots around Lesmurdie, in the hills at the eastern edge of Perth. They were mainly males defending their territories, which meant that it was relatively easy to get pictures of them as if disturbed they would come back to almost the exact same spot. It appears that the freshly emerged specimens are a lot darker, with the ground colour being almost black. I did get a couple of photos of one of these, but missed the shot of it posing beautifully with its wings completely outstretched.
However, I did get some amusing shots of one very hungry specimen with its head stuck right down into a flower 🙂

Sightings

Lesmurdie, WA – October 2008, October 2016

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