''Colotis eris'', the banded gold tip or black-barred gold tip, 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
Pieridae
The Pieridae are a large family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from tropical Africa and tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern regions of North America and Eurasia.DeVries P. J. in Levi ...
. It is found in the
Afrotropical realm
The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...
.
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 40–45 mm. The adults have fly year-round in warm areas, peaking from March to June.
The
larva
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
The ...
e feed on ''
Boscia albitrunca
''Boscia albitrunca'', commonly known as the shepherd tree or shepherd's tree ( af, Witgat, st, Mohlôpi, tn, Motlôpi, ve, Muvhombwe, xh, Umgqomogqomo, zu, Umvithi), is a protected tree in South Africa. The species epithet "albitrunca" ref ...
'' and ''
Boscia oleoides
''Boscia'' is a genus of plants in the family ''Capparaceae''. It contains the following species:
*''Boscia albitrunca'' (Burch) Gilg & Ben.
*''Boscia angustifolia'' A. Rich.
*'' Boscia arabica'' Pestalozii
*'' Boscia caffra'' Sond.
*'' Boscia ...
''.
[
]
Subspecies
The following subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
are recognised:[''Colotis'']
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms''
*''C. e. eris'' (Sub-Saharan Africa, including Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, northern Nigeria, Sudan, Kenya, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Eswatini)
*''C. e. contractus'' Gabriel, 1937-38 (Yemen, Oman)
*''?C. e. johnstoni'' (Butler, 1886)
References
Seitz, A. ''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 15
as ''johnstoni''
Butterflies described in 1857
eris
{{Pieridae-stub