''Eretis umbra'', the small marbled elf, 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

Hesperiidae Skippers are a family of the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) named the Hesperiidae. Being diurnal, they are generally called butterflies. They were previously placed in a separate superfamily, Hesperioidea; however, the most recent taxonomy ...

. 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 ...

to eastern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

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 ...

. Similar to ''

Eretis djaelaelae ''Eretis djaelaelae'', the marbled elf, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found from Somalia to South Africa to Angola and Abyssinia. The habitat consists of savanna woodland and sometimes also grassland. Similar to '' Eretis umbra' ...

'' but lacks white forelegs. 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 30–32 mm for males and 32–37 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round in warmer areas and from August to May in cooler areas. The larvae feed on '' Chaetacanthus setiger'', '' Phaulopsis'', '' Dyschoriste'', ''Chaetacanthus'' (synonym of ''Dyschoriste''), '' Justicia'' and ''

Asystasia The genus ''Asystasia'' belongs to the family Acanthaceae and comprises approximately 70 species found in the tropics, including the weedy species ''Asystasia gangetica''. Selected species * '' Asystasia africana'' (S. Moore) C.B. Clarke * ''As ...

'' (including '' Asystasia schimperi'').

Subspecies

*''Eretis umbra umbra'' (South Africa: along the coast from the western Cape to the eastern Cape, Eswatini, KwaZulu-Natal, the Orange Free State, Limpopo, the North-West Provinces, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the eastern part of the northern Cape) *''Eretis umbra maculifera'' Mabille & Boullet, 1916 (north-eastern Uganda, central and western Kenya, Tanzania) *''Eretis umbra nox'' (Neave, 1910) (Malawi, southern and eastern Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe)

References

Butterflies described in 1862 Celaenorrhinini {{Pyrginae-stub