Plain Palm Dart

Description:

Hesperiidae; Hesperiinae; Cephrenes acalle chrysozona Plötz 1883 (Type locality: Philippines). Wikipedia explains "There are seven subspecies within the distribution range that extends from India through Indo-China into the Philippines." The specimen shown here is a male. I am sure I took a picture of a female at some time and I will try to find it to add here or for another spotting.

Habitat:

Spotted on Tropical Whiteweed (Ageratum conyzoides) growing at the conjunction of four rice fields This Tropical Whiteweed seems to be extremely popular amongst many butterflies in our area, but Hesperiidae spp. find it irresistible. They are on and around this particular plant throughout most of the year.

Notes:

Regarding the pictures displayed above: This Plain Palm Dart was rather skittish and I only got three photos. The first photo gives a decent lateral view. The second is almost identical and I would not have included it, but for the fact that the wings are slightly open, giving just a slight glimpse of the upper wing markings. This helped my identification. The third picture is quite useless for showing the butterfly, but it shows the Tropical Whiteweed ( Ageratum conyzoides) which is widespread throughout this area and is of great importance to this species of butterfly and many others. I believe that if steps were taken to eradicate this weed, many Hesperiidae spp. and countless other insect populations would be decimated.