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Sticker of Formosan swift
Bug card No. 1740 of 4,939

Formosan swift

Borbo cinnara
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesGardens and meadows6 legs

The Formosan swift is a small brown skipper, a kind of butterfly with a chunky body. Its front wings have little pale spots. Its caterpillars live on grasses, and one of its names is the rice swift.

Lives in
Sri Lanka, India and Southeast Asia to Taiwan, and Australia
Top speed
about 30 km/h (19 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The butterflies drink nectar from flowers. The caterpillars eat grasses.
For real!Photo of Formosan swift
Picture by Basile Morin. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its body and the bases of its wings have a faint greenish fuzz.

2

Each front wing is only about 15 to 16 millimetres long.

3

Formosa is an old name for Taiwan, one of the places where it lives.

you asked

Most asked questions about Formosan swift

?What does the Formosan swift eat?

The butterflies drink nectar. The caterpillars eat grasses.

?Where does the Formosan swift live?

In South and Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Australia.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Borbo cinnara
Group
Butterflies
Family
Hesperiidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Hesperiidae
Lives on
Asia, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Rice swift, Rice leaf folder

Where the facts come from

  1. Borbo cinnara (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 Basile Morin. 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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