Dingy swift
Gegenes nostrodamus figure in Seitz, male left, female right
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hesperiidae
Genus: Gegenes
Species:
G. nostrodamus
Binomial name
Gegenes nostrodamus
(Fabricius, 1793)[1]
Synonyms
  • Hesperia nostrodamus Fabricius, 1793
  • Philoodus nostrodamus
  • Pamphila proclea Walker, 1870
  • Gegenes karsana Moore, 1874

Gegenes nostrodamus, commonly known as the dingy swift, light pygmy skipper,[2] Mediterranean skipper or veloz de las rieras, is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae. It is found from the Mediterranean Sea, through Anatolia to Turkestan and India.

The length of the forewings is 15–16 mm. Adults are on wing from May to October in multiple generations.

The larvae feed on various grasses, including Gramineae, Aeluropus (in the Sinai Desert) and Aerulopus and Panicum species.

Description

Dark brown, base smoky black; inner margin of the hindwing paler than the ground colour, and a few white dots on the forewing in the female. Underside pale brown, with some obscure white spots towards the tip of the forewing, and in the female at the hind-margin of the hindwing also. Expands a little over one inch. It inhabits South Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia in August, and is found in dry places. (Kirby)

— Edward Yerbury Watson[3]

Recorded from Campbellpore, Kala Pani and Hurripur, N.-W. India,(Butler).

Mediterranean skipper Just finished nectaring from Cassia italica

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gegenes nostrodamus.
Wikispecies has information related to Gegenes nostrodamus.
  1. ↑ Gegenes at funet.fi
  2. ↑ Afrotropical Butterflies: Hesperiidae - Subfamily Hesperiinae
  3. ↑ Watson, E. Y. 1891. Hesperiidae Indicae: descriptions of the Hesperiidae of India, Burmah and Ceylon. Madras.


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