Pelopidas agna (Moore, 1866)
Dingy Swift
 (previously known as Hesperias agna)
HESPERIINAE,   HESPERIIDAE,   HESPERIOIDEA
  
Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Pelopidas agna
(Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

This Caterpillar is green, with green dots, and two yellow dorsolateral lines. The head is green with two brown stripes. It feeds on various grasses (POACEAE) such as :

  • Australian Swamp Grass ( Ischaemum australe ),
  • Russell River Grass ( Paspalum paniculatum ),
  • Rice ( Oryza sativa ), and
  • Sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor ).

    Pelopidas agna
    (Specimen: courtesy of The Australian Museum)

    The adult butterfly is dark brown with a series of white spots on each fore wing. The wing span is about 3 cms.

    Pelopidas agna
    underside
    (Specimen: courtesy of The Australian Museum)

    Various sub-species are found all over south-east Asia, including

  • Bangladesh,
  • Philippines, and
  • Sri Lanka,

    and the subspecies dingo Evans 1949, is found in Australia in:

  • Western Australia,
  • Northern Territory, and
  • Queensland.

    > Pelopidas agna
    (Photo: courtesy of Martin Purvis, Cairns, Queensland)

    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia,
    CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 240-241.

    Brigadier William Henry Evans,
    A Catalogue of the Hesperiidae from Europe, Asia, and Australia in the British Museum (Natural History), British Museum (Natural History), Department of Entomology (1949), pp. 439-440 Nos. c,d

    Frederic Moore,
    On the Lepidopterous Insects of Bengal,
    Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,
    Volume 3 (1865), pp. 791-792.

    previous
    back
    caterpillar
    Australian
    Australian Butterflies
    butterflies
    Australian
    home
    Lepidoptera
    Australian
    Australian Moths
    moths
    next
    next
    caterpillar
    (updated 23 January 2010, 5 January 2024)