Stugeta bowkeri

Bowker's sapphire
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Stugeta
Species:	S. bowkeri
Binomial name
Stugeta bowkeri (Trimen, 1864) [1]
Synonyms
Iolaus bowkeriTrimen, 1864 Stugeta mariaSuffert, 1904 Iolaus (Stugeta) bowkeri albezaKoçak, 1996 Stugeta bowkeri f. caeruleaStempffer, 1947 Stugeta bowkeri f. mombasaeButler, 1901 Stugeta bowkeri var. nyanzanaWichgraf, 1911

Stugeta bowkeri, the Bowker's sapphire, Bowker's marbled sapphire or Bowker's tailed blue, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in most of southern Africa.

The wingspan is 26–32 mm for males and 29–41 mm for females. Adults are on wing from September to May, with peaks in October and March. ^[2]

Larvae of subspecies bowkeri and henningi feed on Viscum rotundifolium . Larvae of subspecies tearei have been recorded on Ximenia afra and X. americana , Viscum rotundifolium and Tapinanthus quinquangulus . Other recorded food plants include Loranthus species (including L. elegans and L. oleaefolius ) and other Tapinanthus and Ximenia species.

Subspecies

• S. b. bowkeri – Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Transvaal, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia
• S. b. albeza(Koçak, 1996) – Somalia
• S. b. caeruleaStempffer – Somalia (Galkayu)
• S. b. ethiopicaStempffer & Bennett, 1958 – Ethiopia
• S. b. henningiDickson, 1980 – arid savannah of Free State, North West and Northern Cape provinces in South Africa
• S. b. kedongavan Someren, 1939 – the Great Rift Valley in Kenya
• S. b. mariaSuffert, 1904 – Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo: south-east to Lualaba and Shaba, Tanzania, northern Zambia
• S. b. mombasaeButler, 1901 – coast of eastern Kenya and north-eastern Tanzania
• S. b. nyanzanaWichgraf, 1911 – Lake Victoria, western Kenya
• S. b. nyasanaTalbot, 1935 – Malawi, south-eastern Tanzania
• S. b. teareiDickson, 1980 – southern Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, northern Namibia, Eswatini, South Africa: Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces

Etymology

The name honours the lepidopterist James Henry Bowker.

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.

External links

• Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 67 c (transitional)