Stugeta bowkeri

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.

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 bowkeri Trimen, 1864
  • Stugeta maria Suffert, 1904
  • Iolaus (Stugeta) bowkeri albeza Koçak, 1996
  • Stugeta bowkeri f. caerulea Stempffer, 1947
  • Stugeta bowkeri f. mombasae Butler, 1901
  • Stugeta bowkeri var. nyanzana Wichgraf, 1911

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 caffra 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. caerulea Stempffer – Somalia (Galkayu)
  • S. b. ethiopica Stempffer & Bennett, 1958 – Ethiopia
  • S. b. henningi Dickson, 1980 – arid savannah of Free State, North West and Northern Cape provinces in South Africa
  • S. b. kedonga van Someren, 1939 – the Great Rift Valley in Kenya
  • S. b. maria Suffert, 1904 – Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo: south-east to Lualaba and Shaba, Tanzania, northern Zambia
  • S. b. mombasae Butler, 1901 – coast of eastern Kenya and north-eastern Tanzania
  • S. b. nyanzana Wichgraf, 1911 – Lake Victoria, western Kenya
  • S. b. nyasana Talbot, 1935 – Malawi, south-eastern Tanzania
  • S. b. tearei Dickson, 1980 – southern Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, northern Namibia, Swaziland, 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.


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