Pelopidas conjuncta (Herrich-Schäffer, 1869) - Conjoined Swift

Subspecies in India

(1) Pelopidas conjuncta conjuncta (Herrich-Schäffer, 1869) – Oriental Conjoined Swift
(2) Pelopidas conjuncta narooa (Moore, 1878) – Sahyadri Conjoined Swift
 

Conservation and Special status

This species is not legally protected in India under any schedules of WildLife (Protection) Act, 1972.

Photo Gallery and Species Biology

This species has been recorded so far from Andaman & Nicobar Islands UT, Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT, Daman & Diu UT, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal, within the Indian limits. 

 

This species was previously known from Myeik (=Mergui), southern Myanmar, southeastward into Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, the Philippines, Sulawesi and other SE Asian islands (Evans 1949; Corbet et al. 1992). The only previous record from India was from the "Nicobars" (Evans 1932), but there are no Indian specimens in the Natural History Museum, London (Evans 1949; Kunte, personal communication). Thus, the sighting reported on this website (BOI media codes au301 and au302) on 3 August 2013 is the first record from mainland India, which is a range extension of nearly 2,000km, if the photograph-based identification is accurate at all.
 
StateJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecNo date
Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT1
Andhra Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh1
Assam
Bihar
Chandigarh
Chhattisgarh
Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT1
Daman & Diu UT
Delhi
Goa
Gujarat1
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jammu and Kashmir UT
Jharkhand
Karnataka21411
Kerala111144
Ladakh UT
Lakshadweep
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra56412202727229
Manipur
Meghalaya
Mizoram
Nagaland
Odisha
Puducherry UT
Punjab
Rajasthan
Sikkim
Tamil Nadu11
Telangana
Tripura1
Uttar Pradesh
Uttarakhand11
West Bengal11
Total8652242328463010

Bambusa spp., Coix lacryma-jobi, Oryza sativa, Rottboellia cochinchinensis, Saccharum officinarum, Sorghum halepense, Triplopogon ramosissimus, Thysanolaena latifolia, Zea mays (Poaceae).

Key Reference:
Nitin, R., V. C. Balakrishnan, P. V. Churi, S. Kalesh, S. Prakash, and K. Kunte. 2018. Larval host plants of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 10(4): 11495–11550.

For the complete list of larval host plants of Indian butterflies, see the page on larval host plants.

gb603 , gb602 , gb601 , gb600 ce049 , ce048 , ce047 , ce046 bt010 , bt009 , bt008 , bt007 by986 , by985 , by984 , by983 , by982 bv528 bh742 as188 as202 aw350 as185 fq875 , fq874

Page citation

Saji K., P. Churi, Manoj P & T. Bhagwat 2026. Pelopidas conjuncta (Herrich-Schäffer, 1869) – Conjoined Swift. In Kunte, K., S. Sondhi, and P. Roy (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 4.12. Published by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies. URL: https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/index.php/pelopidas-conjuncta, accessed 2026/05/23.