Platylesches picanini Holland 1894
Creators
- 1. C / o CABI Europe - UK, Bakeham Lane, Egham, TW 20 9 TY, UK (e-mail: m. cock @ cabi. org; mjwcock @ btinternet. com)
- 2. African Butterfly Research Institute (ABRI), P. O. Box 14308, Nairobi, Kenya (e-mail: colin. congdon @ gmail. com)
Description
Platylesches picanini Holland, 1894
In 1989, S.E. Woodhall reared this species from Pa. curatellifolia in Venda (now part of Limpopo Province in the far north of South Africa) (Woodhall 1994). This food plant record is repeated in Pringle et al. (1994), Henning et al. (1997), Woodhall (2005) and Larsen (2005). Woodhall (1994) notes that ‘the larvae inhabited leaf shelters in which the leaf was cut at either end of the shelter and with the edge of the leaf pulled across to touch the leaf surface. The joint was closed by means of many very fine, short, brown silk threads, concealing the larva. Inside the shelter, the larva had spun a bed of strong struts of white silk, on which it rested.’ Woodhall (1994) and Henning et al. (1997) illustrate the penultimate and final instar caterpillars and the pupa. The final instar caterpillar superficially resembles Pl. moritili forms alpha or beta.
TCEC has also reared Pl. picinini from Pa. curatellifolia occasionally from Mulanje, Malawi. The caterpillar is a tube maker, and was not distinguished from the caterpillars of Pl. moritili.
Notes
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Family
- Hesperiidae
- Genus
- Platylesches
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Scientific name authorship
- Holland
- Species
- picanini
- Taxon rank
- species
- Taxonomic concept label
- Platylesches picanini Holland, 1894 sec. Cock & Congdon, 2013
References
- Holland, W. J. (1894) Some new and little-known African Hesperiidae. Entomological News, 5, 89 - 95, plate III.
- Woodhall, S. E. (1994) Notes on the early stages of three species of Platylesches Holland (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae). Metamorphosis, 5, 127 - 131, plate 4.
- Pringle, E. L. L., Henning, G. A. & Ball, J. B. (Eds.) (1994) Pennington's Butterflies of Southern Africa. Second Edition. Struik Winchester, Cape Town, South Africa, 800 pp.
- Henning, G. A. & Henning, S. F. (1997) Notes on the genus Platylesches Holland (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae) with a description of a new species from South Africa. Metamorphosis, 8 (2), 76 - 81.
- Woodhall, S. (2005) Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Struik Nature, Capetown, South Africa, 440 pp.
- Larsen, T. B. (2005) Butterflies of West Africa. 2 vols. Apollo Books, Stenstrup, Denmark, 595 pp. & 270 pp.