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Straight-line Sapphire
Iolaus silas
-23.3271, 27.0016
Field Notes
Description:
A small to medium sized butterfly with a wingspan up to 34 mm. The underside of the wings are very white but with two fine lines paralleling the margin of the hind wing apparent on closer inspection The black eyes and antennae and the red and black spots at the base of the hind wing tail stand out in contrast against the white wing. The upper surface of the wings have a broad dark margin and a bright central colour being bright blue in the male and violet-blue in the female. Both sexes have 2 red spots on each hind wing near to the base of a slender tail.
Habitat:
This butterfly occurs in bushveld in southern and eastern Botswana across through southern Zimbabwe to the coast in Mozambique and then south through the coastal forests of eastern South Africa.
Notes:
There was just this single individual that visited my weedy veggie patch on that day and I haven't seen any more since then.. Sadly I wasn't able to catch it with its wings open, it clamped them shut immediately on landing every time.
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