Chrysoritis thysbe

Chrysoritis thysbe, the opal copper or common opal, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in South Africa.

Opal copper
Chrysoritis thysbe
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lycaenidae
Genus: Chrysoritis
Species:
C. thysbe
Binomial name
Chrysoritis thysbe
(Linnaeus, 1764)[1]
Synonyms
  • Papilio thysbe Linnaeus, 1764
  • Papilio nais Cramer, 1775
  • Papilio splendens Swainson, 1833
  • Phasis osbecki Aurivillius, 1882
  • Poecilmitis psyche Pennington, 1967
  • Poecilmitis bamptoni Dickson, 1976
  • Poecilmitis lyndseyae Henning, 1979
  • Poecilmitis thysbe schloszae Dickson, 1994
  • Poecilmitis whitei Dickson, 1994
  • Poecilmitis mithras Pringle, 1995

The wingspan is 24–32 mm for males and 23–35 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round with peaks in October and March.[2]

The larvae feed on Chrysanthemoides incana, C. monilifera, Osteospermum polygaloides, Lebeckia plukenetiana, Aspalathus, Zygophyllum and Thesium species. They are attended to by Crematogaster peringueyi ants.

Subspecies
  • Chrysoritis thysbe (nominate subspecies)
Range: Cape Peninsula to Mossel Bay, north to Lamberts Bay, inland to Piketberg and Citrusdal
  • Chrysoritis thysbe subsp. osbecki (Aurivillius, 1882)
  • Chrysoritis thysbe subsp. psyche (Pennington, 1967)
Range: from Bitterfontein south to Nardouwsberg in the Western Cape
Range: Hondeklipbaai area, inland to Wallekraal in the Northern Cape
  • Chrysoritis thysbe subsp. schloszae (Dickson, 1994)
Range: Moorreesburg area in the Western Cape
  • Chrysoritis thysbe subsp. whitei (Dickson, 1994)
Range: Port Elizabeth area in the Eastern Cape
  • Chrysoritis thysbe subsp. mithras (Pringle, 1995)
Range: Stilbaai to Brenton-on-Sea in the Western Cape
  • Nominate subsp.
  • C. t. subsp. osbecki
  • C. t. subsp. psyche
  • C. t. subsp. whitei
gollark: Okay, no, the problem is that the Lua REPL is evil and does not let you save locals.
gollark: What does `assert` return?
gollark: Though you can do it trivially with debug now.
gollark: I think the Polychoron TLCO kills shell?
gollark: Rednet runs as a native Polychoron process instead of being randomly in the background.

References
  1. Chrysoritis at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  2. Woodhall, Steve (2005). Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Struik. ISBN 978-1-86872-724-7.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.