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Twin Swift

Borbo gemella

Photo by Tiz
Published on Project Noah
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-25.9511, 32.5742

Field Notes

Description:

It is quite hard to find some substential information about this butterfly!

Habitat:

Urban area just before dawn, in a garden with very few flowers and no mud.

Notes:

This butterfly is found in Africa (including Madagascar) and south-western Arabia. In general the habitat consists of frost-free savanna and forests, but this example were found in an urban environment as written above.

Adults are attracted to flowers and males mud-puddle. Wingspan is about 42 mm and they are on wing all year round, with a peak in March and April.

Species ID Suggestions

Twin Swift

Borbo gemella

Comments (4)

Oh bananas! I surrender. The information is very interesting and makes me respect what you and others are able to do even more, but what you describes takes a long time to master. I know this is one out of many "thanks" you have recieved here, but I am really happy for your answer! It is a joy to learn new things! Best regards Tina
Here we go! Bayucca at your service ;-)... OK, be serious... Looking at Skippers, I can tell you is a nightmare... You need spots and markings and you need full open wing shots, anything you have. Then you have to localize all spots, look at their exact location and relationsship to each other (sic!), so distance from spot to spot is very important. Like in yours each mm counts: Look in your #5, the third rectangular (!) spots is half detached, so not exactyl in a row, but only half detached, there are some that are fully detached without the axis of the others. Do not forget the size of the spots!! Look at the shape, check all four wings views. OK, in your I only had 2 of which one was only a dark entry in a hole where are some tiny and shy spots ;-)... Most important: Luck! http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/butterflies/hesperiidae/borbo_gemella.htm http://www.flickr.com/photos/anasilva/6973672360/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borbo_gemella
Thanks Lauren! With your great information the search led me in to this: Pelopidas mathias. But I am very bad at butterflies, I dont really know what to look for. I dont know how much the pattern of the wings differs from one individual to an other in the same Species.

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