Acleros mackenii

Acleros mackenii
A. m. instabilis Kakamega Forest, Kenya
maleA. m. olaus Aburi Botanical Gardens, Ghana
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Hesperiidae
Genus:	Acleros
Species:	A. mackenii
Binomial name
Acleros mackenii (Trimen, 1868) [1]
Synonyms
Pamphila mackeniiTrimen, 1868 Acleros nyassicolaStrand, 1921 Acleros mackenii f. deniaEvans, 1937 Apaustus olausPlötz, 1884 Acleros instabilisMabille, 1890

Acleros mackenii, the Macken's skipper or Macken's dart, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found in Western, Eastern and Southern Africa.

The wingspan is 27–32 mm for males and 29–33 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round but are more common in late summer, autumn and winter than in the hotter midsummer months. ^[2]

The larvae feed on Rhus species (including Rhus corarius ) and Acridocarpus species (including Acridocarpus smeathmanni ).

Subspecies

• Acleros mackenii mackenii (possibly Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, South Africa: Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape Province)
• Acleros mackenii olaus(Plötz, 1884) (Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic Congo, southern Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi)
• Acleros mackenii instabilisMabille, 1890 (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia)

• 
  male A. m. olaus

References

1. Acleros 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.

• Media related to Acleros mackenii at Wikimedia Commons
• Data related to Acleros mackenii at Wikispecies