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Sticker of Lesser dart
Bug card No. 2581 of 4,939

Lesser dart

Potanthus omaha
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesRainforests and jungles6 legs

The lesser dart is a tiny skipper butterfly with dark brown wings and bright orange-yellow patches. Skippers are small butterflies that zip quickly from flower to flower. It lives in warm countries from India to Australia.

Lives in
India, South East Asia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia
Wingspan
2 to 2.4 cm (0.79 to 0.94 in)
Top speed
about 27 km/h (17 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The butterfly sips nectar from flowers with its long tongue.
For real!Photo of Lesser dart
Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Lesser dart wings about 2.4 cm tip to tip (0.94 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
wings as wide as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 14 seconds

How big is Lesser dart compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

With open wings it is only about 2 to 2.4 centimetres across.

2

It looks so much like its relatives that experts can only be sure which one it is by looking very closely at a male under a microscope.

3

Its wings are heavily dusted with yellowish scales near the front edges.

you asked

Most asked questions about Lesser dart

?How big is the lesser dart?

It is a small butterfly, about 2 to 2.4 centimetres across with open wings.

?Where does the lesser dart live?

In India, Indochina, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Potanthus omaha
Named by
Edwards, 1863
Group
Butterflies
Family
Hesperiidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Hesperiidae
Lives on
Asia, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Potanthus omaha (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Rainforests and jungles

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