Dear Nature Lovers,
Greetings from oikos !
Water Snow Flat is a member of family ‘Hesperiidae’.
Name comes from its affinity to water and Snowy white patch on wings.
Scientific name : Tagiades litigiosa.
The family Hesperiidae popularly known as family of ‘skippers’,
butterflies with excellent flying abilities, bouncing and skipping.
‘Flats’ i.e. butterflies belonging to a sub-family are named for their sitting habit.
Unlike all other skippers or other butterflies,
they always sit with their wings spread apart flat.
This is characteristics of moth and found only in this group of butterflies.
Water Snow Flat is seen in evergreen and semi evergreen forests and
also in deciduous forests mostly confining to wet areas and riparian forests.
Flight is fast and smooth, but with intermittent jerks.
It sits at the edge of the branch and leaf looking over the undergrowth.
Usually feeds on flowers of Acanthaceae family like Strobilanthes, Peristrophe.
Larval Food plants :
Dioscorea alata, D. oppositifolia, Smilax spp.
घोटवेल – Smilax zeylanica
Common climber in moist deciduous and semi evergreen forests.
Can be identified by its peculiar tendrils and converging veins on leaf.
Fruits are used as vegetable. |
