Subspecies in India
Taxonomic Information
Widespread variation in spotting pattern seen in this species has erroneously been described in the past as subspecies. "Three subspecies names are commonly listed in literature: Taractrocera ceramas media Evans, 1934, Taractrocera ceramas nicevillei Watson, 1893, and Taractrocera ceramas oberthueri Elwes & Edwards, 1897 (Evans 1949). We treat them as infrasubspecific variation as there is no geographic separation between these presumed subspecies. We treat the NE Indian and N. Myanmarese taxon as a distinct species, Taractrocera atropunctata Watson, 1896 based on differences in the male genitalia." (Nitin et al. 2018).
This species is also known as the Tamil Grass Dart.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
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This species has been recorded so far from Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, within the Indian limits.
This is a common species.
| State | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | No date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT | |||||||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Arunachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Assam | |||||||||||||
| Bihar | |||||||||||||
| Chandigarh | |||||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | |||||||||||||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT | |||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu UT | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | |||||||||||||
| Goa | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Gujarat | |||||||||||||
| Haryana | |||||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | |||||||||||||
| Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
| Karnataka | 2 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | |||
| Kerala | 12 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 10 | 11 | ||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Maharashtra | 2 | 6 | 20 | 39 | 11 | ||||||||
| Manipur | |||||||||||||
| Meghalaya | |||||||||||||
| Mizoram | |||||||||||||
| Nagaland | |||||||||||||
| Odisha | |||||||||||||
| Puducherry UT | |||||||||||||
| Punjab | |||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | |||||||||||||
| Sikkim | |||||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Telangana | |||||||||||||
| Tripura | |||||||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Uttarakhand | |||||||||||||
| West Bengal | |||||||||||||
| Total | 12 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 28 | 54 | 30 | 12 | 11 |
Axonopus compressus, Imperata cylindrica, Miscanthus sinensis, Oplismenus compositus, Oryza sativa (Poaceae).
For the complete list of larval host plants of Indian butterflies, see the page on larval host plants.
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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.
Page citation
Kunte, K., and Saji K. 2026. Taractrocera ceramas (Hewitson, 1868) – Tawny-spotted Grass Dart. 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/taractrocera-ceramas, accessed 2026/06/08.