Kingdom Animalia Family Hesperiidae Scientific name Tagiades gana Rank Species | Class Insecta Genus Tagiades Phylum Arthropoda Order Butterflies and moths | |
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Similar Tagiades, Tagiades japetus, Tagiades litigiosa, Tagiades parra, Gerosis | ||
Tagiades gana, the immaculate snow flat, large snow flat or suffused snow flat, is a butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae.
Description
In 1891, Edward Yerbury Watson gave a detailed description:
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.
Dioscorea alata is a host plant for the larvae.