Platylesches shona Evans 1937
Authors/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 shona Evans, 1937
This species was described from a single male from Shamva, Zimbabwe (=Abercorn, north-east Rhodesia) (Evans 1937). It is now known from Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, south to Zambia, Namibia and Mozambique (Kielland 1990; Pringle et al. 1994; Ackery et al. 1995, Heath et al. 2002). In Tanzania, it is found in western areas from Kigoma and Mpanda to Sumbawanga and as far east as Mufindi in the Udzungwas.
Food plants
TCEC found this species on Pa. curatellifolia in Zambia.
Life history
The larvae make silk lined chambers in mature foliage, emerging at night to feed. The shelter is similar in construction to that of Pl. robustus, but is smaller and lacks the external curved tunnel of silk. It is usually found well above the ground. The final instar Pl. shona are similar to those of the penultimate instar of Pl. robustus. Shelters of young Pl. shona and Pl. langa could be confused, except that those of Pl. langa are near the ground, usually adjacent to the characteristic eating pattern of the first and second instars (Figure 68.1).
Notes
Files
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Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Scientific name authorship
- Evans
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Family
- Hesperiidae
- Genus
- Platylesches
- Species
- shona
- Taxon rank
- species
- Taxonomic concept label
- Platylesches shona Evans, 1937 sec. Cock & Congdon, 2013
References
- Evans, W. H. (1937) A catalogue of the African Hesperiidae indicating the classification and nomenclature adopted in the British Museum. British Museum (Natural History), London, UK, 212 pp, 30 plates.
- Kielland, J. (1990) Butterflies of Tanzania. Hill House, Melbourne, Australia, 363 pp.
- 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.
- Ackery, P. R., Smith, C. R. & Vane-Wright, R. I. (1995) Carcasson's African Butterflies. An annotated catalogue of the Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea of the Afrotropical Region. CSIRO Publications, Melbourne, Australia, 803 pp.
- Heath, A., Newport, M. A. & Hancock, D. (2002) The Butterflies of Zambia. African Butterfly Research Institute and The Lepidopterists' Society of Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, 137 pp. + CD.