Synonyms

This butterfly was previously classified as Telicota augias mesoptis, then as  Telicota mesoptis. In 2022 it was reclassified as Telicota paceka mesoptis.

Other Common Names

Lower’s Darter

Notes

I don’t tend to take a lot of pics of the Darters and Grass Darts around Cairns, as there’s a lot of them and they’re very hard to ID. I saw my first specimen on the Blue Arrow walk in the Mount Whitfield Conservation Park in April 2011, and I thought his small size and yellow colour would make an ID possible.

Until recently I’d only come across a few more since then, though there were 3 or 4 of them feeding from flowers in Al’s garden at Kuranda in April 2021. In April 2025 I saw lots of these darters. They were just about everywhere I went; at Cooktown, in Cairns and on the Atherton tablelands.

Sightings

Cairns – April 2011, April 2021, June 2022, April 2023, April 2025
Atherton – February 2018, April 2025
Kuranda – February 2018, April 2021
Cooktown – April 2025

Links

• The Complete Field Guide to Australian Butterflies (2nd edition) by Michael F. Braby
• Atlas of Living Australia
• Don Herbison-Evans’ Australian Butterflies website
• Tobias Westmeier’s website
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility
• iNaturalist
• The nomenclature and type status of Telicota paceka mesoptis Lower, 1911 (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) by Michael F. Braby and Ethan P. Beaver