Doi Suthep-Pui NP, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Order : Lepidoptera
Family : Hesperiidae
Sub-Family : Hesperiinae
Genus : Matapa
Species : Matapa aria
A fairly large skipper distributed from Sri Lanka, through India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, and southern China. Although it is supposed to be common I have only ever seen this one individual. It has a wingspan of 35-45mm and seems to like puddling for minerals which is quite unusual for skippers. The female is a little larger than the male and has a tuft of hair on the abdomen but is otherwise very similar in appearance . They are fast fliers and usually rest with their wings folded upright. Habitat is primarily in forests up to about 500m altitude or wherever there is an ample supply of bamboo.
The female lays her eggs singly on the underside of a leaf on the host plant. Larval foodplants are Bambusa ssp. (Poaceae) and Dendrocalamus strictus (Poaceae). She conceals the egg in a mass of setae from her abdominal tip. The egg takes 5 days to hatch and the larva then takes 20-26 days to reach the pupation stage. After 7 days the adult butterfly emerges from the mature pupa.
All my insect pics are single, handheld shots of live insects.
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