Oriental Variable Swift

August 25, 2023

Parnara bada bada (Moore, 1878)

Malayalam Name	:	നേർ ശരശലഭം
Order	:	Lepidoptera
Family	:	Hesperiidae
Sub-family	:	Hesperiinae
Sub species	:	Parnara bada bada
common names	:	Oriental Variable Swift

DISTRIBUTION India to Australia

STATUS:

HABITAT: .

HABITS

IDENTIFICATION FEATURES

Male. A smaller insect than Parnara guttata. Upperside dark brown, without the ochreous tint, the hair-like setae on the forewing and the hairs covering the hindwing as in guttata, but grey in colour, not dull ochreous as in that species. Upperside with the spots white, not ochreous-white, and all very small. Forewing with the discal spots disposed as in guttata, but in all the examples before us there are only two sub-apical spots, the uppermost one being absent, the two sub-apical quite minute, being mere dots, the other three increasing in size hindwards, all three quite small, and there are no cell spots. Hindwing with three dots in the disc in an outward curve, one in each of interspaces 2, 3 and 4. Cilia cinereous, with a brownish base, becoming whitish hindwards. Underside paler and duller in colour, much as in guttata, but the colour is somewhat more ochreous, the spots as on the upperside. Antennae, palpi, head and body similar. Female like the male, the spots larger, increasing in size hindwards, only two sub-apical dots, sometimes one and sometimes two cell dots, the usual spot against the sub-median vein in continuation of the discal series, so prominent in guttata, altogether absent, or only very slightly indicated; in the hindwing the three or four discal spots are minute.

SIMILAR SPECIES

LARVAL HOST PLANTS