Potanthus confucius explained

Potanthus confucius,^[1] the Chinese dart or Confucian dart, is a species of butterfly belonging to the family Hesperiidae.^[2] They are found from Sri Lanka and India^[3] to China and Japan and down to Sumatra and Java in Indonesia.^[4] Some museum specimens have also been reported to be from Palawan in the Philippines, but due to the absence of the species in Borneo, it is possible that these were mislabeled or misidentified.^[5]

Subspecies

• P. c. diana (Evans, 1932) - Maharashtra to Kerala
• P. c. dushta (Fruhstorfer, 1911) - Sikkim, northeast India to Indochina
• P. c. nina (Evans, 1932) - Andaman and Nicobar Islands^[3]

Notes and References

1. Book: Evans, W. H. . A Catalogue of the Hesperiidae from Europe, Asia, and Australia in the British Museum . William Harry Evans . British Museum (Natural History). Department of Entomology. 1949. London. 382.
2. Web site: Potanthus confucius. April 4, 2009. ZipCode Zoo. May 5, 2011. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120902193109/http://zipcodezoo.com/Animals/P/Potanthus_confucius/. September 2, 2012.
3. Book: A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India . Varshney . R.K. . Smetacek. Peter. Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal & Indinov Publishing, New Delhi. 2015. 978-81-929826-4-9. New Delhi. 62–64. 10.13140/RG.2.1.3966.2164.
4. Web site: Savela . Markku . Potanthus confucius (C. & R. Felder, 1862) . Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms . July 3, 2018.
5. Rienk de Jong & Colin Guy Treadaway . 1993. The Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera) of the Philippines. Zoologische Verhandelingen. 288. 3 - 125.