Subspecies in India
There are four species of Parnara in India:
(1) Parnara apostata debdasi Chiba & Eliot, 1991 – Himalayan Dark Straight Swift
(2) Parnara bada bada (Moore, 1878) – Oriental Grey Swift
(3) Parnara ganga Evans, 1937 – Continental Swift
(4) Parnara guttatus mangala (Moore, [1866]) – Himalayan Straight Swift.
Their species-level identification is based largely on structures of the male genitalia. Hence, they cannot be identified easily based on external traits such as wing patterns.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
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| State | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | No date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT | |||||||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Arunachal Pradesh | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Assam | 1 | 7 | 20 | 7 | |||||||||
| Bihar | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Chandigarh | 6 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 25 | 8 | 1 | |||||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT | |||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu UT | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | 9 | 8 | 3 | ||||||||||
| Goa | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Gujarat | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Haryana | |||||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
| Karnataka | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 5 | |||
| Kerala | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | ||||||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
| Maharashtra | 5 | 2 | 7 | 17 | 47 | 33 | 14 | 2 | |||||
| Manipur | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Meghalaya | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Mizoram | |||||||||||||
| Nagaland | |||||||||||||
| Odisha | |||||||||||||
| Puducherry UT | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Punjab | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | |||||||||||||
| Sikkim | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||
| Tripura | |||||||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | |||||||
| Uttarakhand | 1 | 24 | 7 | ||||||||||
| West Bengal | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 6 | |||||
| Total | 4 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 17 | 21 | 19 | 43 | 135 | 122 | 43 | 13 |
Key Reference:
Nitin, R., V. C. Balakrishnan, P. V. Churi, S. Kalesh, S. Prakash, and K. Kunte. 2018. Larval host plants of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 10:11495–11550.
For the complete list of larval host plants of Indian butterflies, see the page on larval host plants.
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Page citation
Anonymous 2025. Parnara spp - – Parnara Swift spp.. In Kunte, K., S. Sondhi, and P. Roy (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 4.12. Published by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies. URL: https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/parnara-parnara-spp, accessed 2025/05/18.