Tagiades jepetus
Encyclopedia
Tagiades japetus, commonly known as the Pied Flat, is a skipper butterfly
belonging to the family Hesperiidae. It is found in South-East Asia
and Australia
(see subspecies section).
The wingspan
is about 40 mm.
The larvae feed on Dioscorea transversa
. During the day, it lives under a triangular piece of leaf cut from its hostplant and folded over. At night, the larva emerges and feeds.
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
belonging to the family Hesperiidae. It is found in South-East Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(see subspecies section).
The wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
is about 40 mm.
The larvae feed on Dioscorea transversa
Dioscorea transversa
Dioscorea transversa, Pencil yam, is a vine of eastern and northern Australia.The leaves are heart-shaped, shiny, with 5-7 prominent veins. The seed pods are rounded, green or pink before drying to a straw brown papery texture. The edible tubers are typically slender and long...
. During the day, it lives under a triangular piece of leaf cut from its hostplant and folded over. At night, the larva emerges and feeds.
Subspecies
- Tagiades japetus japetus
- Tagiades japetus atticus (Fabricius, 1793) - Common Snow Flat (Madhya Pradesh - Bengal, Dehra Dun - Assam, Burma)
- Tagiades japetus ravi (Moore, [1866]) (Bengal - Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam)
- Tagiades japetus obscurus Mabille, 1876 - Ceylon Snow Flat or Suffused Snow Flat (Ceylon, Nilgiris, Shevaroys, Palnis)
- Tagiades japetus janetta Butler, 1870 - Black And White Flat (northern Gulf and north-eastern coast of Queensland, Aru Islands, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands)