''Anthene butleri'', the pale hairtail or Butler's ciliate blue, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

of the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfl ...

. It is found from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. In South Africa it is found in coastal lowland forest in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

, from the coast to Kosi Bay, inland across the Makathini Flats. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 23–28 mm for males and 25–32 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round, with a peak in the warmer months. The larvae feed on ''

Kalanchoe crenata ''Kalanchoe'' , also written ''Kalanchöe'' or ''Kalanchoë'', is a genus of about 125 species of tropical, succulent plants in the stonecrop family (biology), family Crassulaceae, mainly native plant, native to Madagascar and tropical Africa. ...

'', '' Kalanchoe lugardii'' and ''

Cotyledon A cotyledon (; ; ; , gen. (), ) is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant, and is defined as "the embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first to appear from a germinating seed." The numb ...

'' species, including ''

Cotyledon orbiculata ''Cotyledon orbiculata'', commonly known as pig's ear or round-leafed navel-wort, is a South African succulent plant belonging to the genus ''Cotyledon''. Description ''Cotyledon orbiculata'' is an extremely variable species, one that grows to a ...

'' .

Subspecies

*''A. b. butleri'' (Ethiopia, southern Sudan, northern Uganda, north-west Kenya) *''A. b. arabicus'' Gabriel, 1954 (Yemen) *''A. b. galla'' Stempffer, 1947 (northern Kenya, southern Ethiopia) *''A. b. livida'' (Trimen, 1881) (Cape, Orange Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Eswatini, Transvaal, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania) *''A. b. stempfferi'' Storace, 1954 (Kenya: central to the Teita Hills, Tanzania)

References

Butterflies described in 1880 Anthene Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Charles Oberthür {{Lycaenesthini-stub