''Iolaus lukabas'', or Druce's sapphire, is a
butterfly in the family
Lycaenidae. The species was
first described by
Hamilton Herbert Druce in 1890. It is found in
the Gambia,
Sierra Leone,
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
,
Ghana,
Nigeria (south and the
Cross River loop) and
Cameroon.
The habitat consists of
gallery forests and dry forest.
The larvae feed on the flowers of ''
Loranthus incanus'' and ''
Phragmanthera capitata
Phragmanthera is a genus of plants in the family Loranthaceae
Loranthaceae, commonly known as the showy mistletoes, is a family of flowering plants. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemiparasites ...
''. They are green and resemble the flowers on which they feed.
References
External links
''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 67''f''
''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 68''e'' as (synonym) ''julius'' Staudinger, 1891
Butterflies described in 1890
Iolaus (butterfly)
Butterflies of Africa
{{Theclinae-stub