Eretis umbra

Eretis umbra
Figure 16
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Hesperiidae
Genus:	Eretis
Species:	E. umbra
Binomial name
Eretis umbra (Trimen, 1862) [1]
Synonyms
List Nisoniades umbraTrimen, 1862 Nisoniades noricaPlötz, 1884 Eretis djaelaelae var. maculiferaMabille & Boullet, 1916 Eretis djaelaelae f. punctigeraMabille and Boullet, 1916 Sarangesa noxNeave, 1910

Eretis umbra, commonly known as the small marbled elf, is a species of butterfly in the family Hesperiidae. It is found from South Africa to eastern Africa and Uganda. Similar to Eretis djaelaelae but lacks white forelegs.

The wingspan is 30–32 mm for males and 32–37 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round in warmer areas and from August to May in cooler areas. ^[2]

The larvae feed on Chaetacanthus setiger , Phaulopsis , Dyschoriste , Chaetacanthus (synonym of Dyschoriste), Justicia and Asystasia (including Asystasia schimperi ).

Subspecies

• Eretis umbra umbra - South Africa: along the coast from the western Cape to the eastern Cape, Eswatini, KwaZulu-Natal, the Orange Free State, Limpopo, the North-West Provinces, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the eastern part of the northern Cape
• Eretis umbra maculiferaMabille & Boullet, 1916 - north-eastern Uganda, central and western Kenya, Tanzania
• Eretis umbra nox(Neave, 1910) - Malawi, southern and eastern Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe

References

1. Eretis 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.