''Hypolycaena buxtoni'', the Buxton's hairstreak, 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 in southern

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 ...

. 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 25–30 mm for males and 28–33 mm for females. Adults are on wing from September to May (with a peak in October and November) and from February to May (with a peak in March and April). There are two generations per year. The larvae feed on ''

Tricalysia ''Tricalysia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The genus is found in tropical and southern Africa and on the islands in the Western Indian Ocean. Species * ''Tricalysia achoundongiana'' Robbr., Sonké & Kenfack * '' T ...

'' and ''

Pavetta ''Pavetta'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It comprises about 360 species of trees, evergreen shrubs and sub-shrubs. It is found in woodlands, grasslands and thickets in sub-tropical and tropical Africa and Asia. The plan ...

'' species and possibly '' Tarenna pavettoides''.Afrotropical Butterflies: Lycaenidae - Subtribe Hypolycaenina
/ref>

Subspecies

*''Hypolycaena buxtoni buxtoni'' (Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Zimbabwe, Malawi) *''Hypolycaena buxtoni rogersi'' Bethune-Baker, 1924 (the coast of eastern Kenya and eastern Tanzania) *''Hypolycaena buxtoni spurcus'' Talbot, 1929 (Zambia, southern Zaire (Shaba), south-western Tanzania)

References

External links

''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 67
''b'' Butterflies described in 1874 Hypolycaenini Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by William Chapman Hewitson {{Theclinae-stub