Iolaus alienus

Iolaus alienus, the brown-line sapphire, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in most of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Iolaus alienus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Lycaenidae
Genus:
Iolaus
Species:
I. alienus
Binomial name
Iolaus alienus
(Trimen, 1898)[1]
Synonyms
  • Epamera alienus Trimen, 1898
  • Jolaus bicaudatus Aurivillius, 1905
Iolaus alienus

The wingspan is 33–37 mm for males and 35–40 mm for females. Adults are on wing from August to November (with a peak in September) and sometimes again from April to May in South Africa. There are two generations per year.[2]

Larvae have been reported on Loranthus species. The larvae of subspecies I. a. alienus feed on Tapinanthus brunneus, Tapinanthus subulatus, Oliverella rubroviridis and Helixanthera kirkii.

Subspecies
  • Iolaus alienus alienus (from KwaZulu-Natal and Transvaal to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, southern Tanzania)
  • Iolaus alienus bicaudatus Aurivillius, 1905 (northern Cameroon, northern Nigeria, Upper Volta)
  • Iolaus alienus ugandae Stempffer, 1953 (Kenya, Uganda, southern Sudan)
  • Iolaus alienus sophiae Henning & Henning, 1991
gollark: Quite easily, as it turns out.
gollark: You can say "10 September" just fine.
gollark: The chicken, actually.
gollark: No, you say that because the date format is wrong.
gollark: They might not not not not not be.

References
  1. Iolaus 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.