Subspecies in India
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
| State | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | No date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Arunachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Assam | |||||||||||||
| Bihar | |||||||||||||
| Chandigarh | |||||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT | |||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu UT | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| Goa | |||||||||||||
| Gujarat | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Haryana | |||||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
| Karnataka | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | |||
| Kerala | 1 | 1 | 14 | ||||||||||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Maharashtra | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 1 | ||
| Manipur | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Meghalaya | |||||||||||||
| Mizoram | |||||||||||||
| Nagaland | |||||||||||||
| Odisha | |||||||||||||
| Puducherry UT | |||||||||||||
| Punjab | |||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | |||||||||||||
| Sikkim | |||||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Tripura | |||||||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Uttarakhand | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| West Bengal | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Total | 6 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 11 | 11 | 33 | 15 | 11 | 9 |
Axonopus compressus, Cymbopogon nardus (Paresh Churi pers. obs. 2016), Dinochloa andamanica, Imperata cylindrica, Oryza spp., Oryza sativa, Saccharum spp., Saccharum officinarum, Sorghum bicolor, Urochloa distachya, Urochloa mutica (=Brachiaria mutica), Urochloa setigera (Abhishek Rane pers. obs. 2023), 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.
Page citation
Chandrasekharan, V.K., and A. Rane 2025. Pelopidas mathias (Fabricius, 1798) – Small Branded 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/pelopidas-mathias, accessed 2025/10/29.





