Hesperilla crypsargyra (Silver Sedge-skipper)

Notes

This is one of the smallest Hesperilla species, and also one of the cutest. In flight they just look like small, dark things buzzing rapidly around, often at ground level, and even when settled the lovely underside markings aren’t all that obvious unless you get really close to them.

I’ve seen them at a number of sites in the higher parts of the Blue Mountains, from Lawson through to Bell and Zig Zag. The best site I found for them was along a track beneath some power lines at Bell, behind the Heavy Vehicle Weighing Station (that one that always seems to be closed). The first couple of times I went there I saw more crypsargyra than I’d seen everywhere else combined, but the next time I went there were none as the area had been bulldozed to protect the power lines from the bushfires that were raging in the Mountains in December 2019 to January 2020. I hope the colony bounces back.

Sightings

Lawson, Blue Mountains – November 2004, December 2008
Blackheath – December 2007, November 2008, November 2012 etc etc
Bell – December 2018, November 2019

Links