Precis archesia

Precis archesia, the garden inspector or garden commodore, is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae, native to Subsaharan Africa.[1]

Garden inspector
f. pelasgis in Tanzania, East Africa
f. archesia in South Africa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Precis
Species:	P. archesia
Binomial name
Precis archesia (Cramer, [1779])
Synonyms
Papilio archesia Cramer, 1779 Junonia archesia Vanessa pelasgis Godart, 1819 Junonia chapunga Hewitson, 1864 Precis staudingeri Dewitz, 1879 Precis guruana Rogenhofer, 1891 Precis archesia var. semitypica Aurivillius, 1899 Precis archesia var. striata Aurivillius, 1901 Precis archesia ab. inornata Neustetter, 1916 Precis archesia f. coryndoni Rothschild, 1918 Precis archesia f. obsoleta Joicey and Talbot, 1921 Junonia archesia ugandensis McLeod, 1980

Wingspan: 45–50 mm for males and 50–60 mm for females.[1]

Flight period is year-round with two main broods between September to March and April to August.[1]

Subspecies

• P. a. archesia (Kenya, southern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Zambia to Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa: Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga, North West Province, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape Province, Western Cape Province to the south-east)
• P. a. ugandensis (McLeod, 1980) (Sudan, Uganda)

Diet

Larval food plants include Plectranthus esculentus, Plectranthus fruticosus, Rabdosiella calycina, Pycnostachys reticulata, and Pycnostachys urticifolia.[1][2]

References

1. Woodhall, Steve (2005). Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Struik. ISBN 978-1-86872-724-7.
2. Precis at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms