Spread-winged Skipper: Tagiades gana (Large Snow Flat)

A skipper or skipper butterfly is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. They are named after their quick, darting flight habits. There are more than 3500 recognized species of skippers and they occur worldwide.

Tagiades gana, commonly known as the Immaculate/Large/Suffused Snow Flat.

Watson (1891) gives a detailed description as follows:
Male and female have a dark brown ground colour.
The male has on the upperside of the forewing, three minute semi-transparent spots obliquely before the apex ; a transverse discal series of streaks, a small patch within the cell, one near the base of the wing, and exterior margin blackish ; hindwing with the lower third pure white which is straightly separated from the brown of the basal portion ; apical margin and three spots on the upper part of the disc, black, and two spots on the middle of the white anterior margin. Underside paler brown, semi-transparent spots on forewing as above : hindwing white suffused with brown along the anterior margin : upper discal and marginal spots as above black.
Female paler. Upperside somewhat greyish-brown ; forewing with spots and blackish discal streaks, and hindwing with upper discal spots as in male : exterior margin of hindwing greyish-white. Underside as in male. Cilia of both sexes pure white on the lower portion of the hindwing, the rest brown.

Classification of Spread-winged Skipper: Tagiades gana (Large Snow Flat)

Kingdom Animalia C. Linnaeus, 1758 - animals

Phylum Arthropoda Latreille, 1829 - arthropods

Class Insecta C. Linnaeus, 1758 - insects

Subclass Pterygota - Winged Insects

Infraclass Neoptera Martynov, 1923

Superorder Endopterygota

Order Lepidoptera C. Linnaeus, 1758 – butterflies and moths

Suborder Glossata

Infraorder Heteroneura 

Superfamily Hesperioidea - skippers

Family Hesperiidae Latreille, 1809 – skippers

Subfamily Pyrginae Burmeister, 1878 – spread-winged skippers and firetips

Genus Tagiades Hübner, 1819 - Snow Flats

Species Tagiades gana (Moore, 1866) – Immaculate / Suffused / Large Snow Flat

Synonym Pterygospidea gana Moore, 1866

References:

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperiidae
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagiades_gana
• www.biolib.cz/en/taxonposition/id650615/

Photo of skipper: Tagiades gana (Large Snow Flat) were taken using a camera phone, Sony Ericsson K800i, in Ponorogo, East Java, Indonesia (in my father-in-law’s front yard).

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